#Berkeley Designs London

[cnu-newurbanism]

A 15-minute city for southeast London

Thamesmead Expansion is a series of proposals for a large, transit-oriented site in London. Students at UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design won a Student Merit Award in the Neighborhood, District, and Corridor category of the 2023 Charter Awards.

Read more.

[whimsicaldragonette]

Blog Blitz and Arc Review: A Love by Design by Elizabeth Everett (The Secret Scientists of London #3)

Welcome to my stop on the A Love by Design Blog Blitz with Berkley Publishing. (This is also posted on my Wordpress book review blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

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Publication Date: January 17, 2023

Synopsis:

You couldn't design a better hero than the very eligible and extremely charming Earl Grantham. Unless, of course, you are Margaret Gault, who wants nothing to do with the man who broke her youthful heart. Widowed and determined, Margaret Gault has returned to Athena's Retreat and the welcoming arms of her fellow secret scientists with an ambitious plan in mind: to establish England's first woman-owned engineering firm. But from the moment she sets foot in London her plans are threatened by greedy investors and--at literally every turn--the irritatingly attractive Earl Grantham, a man she can never forgive. George Willis, the Earl Grantham, is thrilled that the woman he has loved since childhood has returned to London. Not as thrilling, however, is her decision to undertake an engineering commission from his political archnemesis. When Margaret's future and Grantham's parliamentary reforms come into conflict, Grantham must use every ounce of charm he possesses--along with his stunning good looks and flawless physique, of course--to win Margaret over to his cause. Facing obstacles seemingly too large to dismantle, will Grantham and Margaret remain forever disconnected or can they find a way to bridge their differences, rekindle the passion of their youth, and construct a love built to last?

*Author info, My rating and review, Favorite Quotes, and Excerpt below the cut.

About the Author:

Photo of Elizabeth Everett from her Goodreads profile

Elizabeth Everett lives in upstate New York with her family. She likes going for long walks or (very) short runs to nearby sites that figure prominently in the history of civil rights and women's suffrage. Her series is inspired by her admiration for rule breakers and belief in the power of love to change the world.

My Rating: ★★★★

My Review:

I loved many things about this novel. First would have to be the characters. It was fun to revisit the characters of Athena's Retreat, and I loved seeing George and Arthur "fighting" (in other words: expressing best-friendship) about George's increasingly ridiculous gifts for Violet & Arthur's baby. I loved George as a character in general - he was so sweet and funny and had an absolute heart of gold. He cared and was trying to do good with the title he'd never wanted. I loved Margaret as well, though she was a bit pricklier and also incredibly stubborn. If she'd let people in and asked for help earlier in the novel I wouldn't have been so frustrated at her decisions… though it also would have meant there would be less story. She is strong and bold and determined and yes, stubborn. I also loved the bit we get of Sam, who I remember loving in the previous book.

This novel really drove home the 'rich and powerful men want to control and dominate women and will do anything to undermine them and keep them from succeeding and keep the status quo' point from previous books -- a point which really hits close to home after watching the events of the past few years unfolding. Much like the real-world events, the events of the novel were infuriating and had me rooting for Maragaret and her friends to prove themselves.

The romance was sweet and one of my favorite kinds -- a second-chance romance between childhood friends / crushes. It was easy to get behind it because George was so very gone on Margaret. He was so in awe of her engineering brain and determined spirit and it was so refreshing, with all the terrible men in the story. They all wanted to crush her beneath their boots for the audacity of being a woman with ideas, and he just wanted to worship her for it. It was clear that Margaret loved him as well -- she just had to get past her stubborn self-reliant independence.

The one thing I could have done without was the sex scenes. There weren't too many -- three, I think? -- but they were very… detailed. Luckily they weren't vital and I could skim them (slowing down to read the dialogue in case it advanced the plot, which it occasionally did). And for me, three sex scenes is three too many. I know I'm in the minority here, and in fact I saw some reviewers lamenting that there weren't enough sex scenes -- which, how? -- so I'm going to chalk it up to just the average romance reader apparently liking to read about sex a lot more than I do and not let it impact my rating.

Margaret also dragged the stubborn independence thing on a liiiiiiittle bit too long, in my opinion, and it bogged down the middle 40% of the book. I think some tightening of the plot there would go a long way toward making this flow better and feel more consistent.

Overall though I really loved it. I love stories with smart women and men with hearts of gold, and this delivered that beautifully.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Berkeley for providing an early copy for review.

Favorite Quotes:

The work came first. She mustn’t ever forget when everyone abandoned her, the work was always there.

---

As the sun battled to punch through the haze of coal smut hanging in the damp London air, Grantham sat in shadows, jealous of the lone shaft of light that fell through the window and landed on Margaret’s left cheek.

---

Everything would be fine if you do the work. Do not aim too high, do not set yourself out to be noticed. If you were a woman in a man’s world, moving forward meant bending to their desires or just doing the work.

---

Yes, and imagine what they would think if Margaret failed? If they learned she spent every day unsure of her talents and worried about exposure? Shouldn’t she feel like a role model if she was going to be one?

---

“I have always loved her,” he said. “I breathe her and bleed her, and if you open me up, my heart is the shape of Margaret Gault. I have loved her from the moment she knocked me to the ground; a blow from which I have never tried to recover. Of course I love her.”

---

Whether that step leads you to where you were always meant to be depends on how you define courage. Is it the tenacity to forge ahead no matter the obstacles, or the ability to ask for help when those obstacles seem insurmountable? Or is it both?

Excerpt:

A LOVE BY DESIGN by Elizabeth Everett

Berkley Romance Trade Paperback Original | On sale January 17, 2023

Excerpt

Maggie had returned. Of course, she was now known as Madame Margaret Gault. Try as he might, Grantham could never twist his tongue around the name. Almost his whole life, he'd called her Maggie. His Maggie. From upside down, he watched as she turned the corner of the carriage house, the wind unfurling the hem of her simple bronze pelisse. A brown capelet hung about her shoulders, and a matching muff hid her hands. Catching sight of him, she paused, tilting her head so he caught a glimpse of lush auburn curls peeking out from beneath her tea-colored bonnet trimmed with bright red berries. Margaret's fair skin showed no hint of the freckles that had once plagued her every summer, and thick brown lashes shielded her hazel eyes. She was unusually tall for a woman; nevertheless, she moved with effortless grace, and not even the blazing clash of colors adorning Violet next to her could detract from her beauty. For she was a beauty, Margaret Gault. Once wild and graceless, she'd bloomed into a woman of elegant refinement. A woman who was more than met the eye. A woman who would rather feast on glass than give him the time of day. For eleven years, the first day of summer meant Margaret would be waiting for him beneath the willow where they first met. She and Violet attended the Yorkshire Academy for the Education of Exceptional Young Women together. While Violet came home to her large, affectionate-and very loud-family, Margaret had no one waiting for her at home. Her father had died of a stroke when she was ten and her mother had little interest in Margaret's whereabouts or well-being. Violet and Grantham had been Margaret's family. The three of them had been the best of friends until one hot afternoon when Margaret had smiled a certain way and the ground went out beneath his feet. A year later he was soldiering in Canada and Margaret lived in Paris and their summers together were nothing but a memory he pulled around himself like a blanket on cold lonely nights. "Good afternoon, Grantham," Violet greeted him, seemingly unaffected by his headfirst dive into her rosebushes. She wore a shocking yellow day dress beneath a burgundy velvet paletot and atop her head sat a garish blue bonnet topped with a life-sized stuffed parrot. Swallowing a barrelful of curses, Grantham tried wriggling out of the bushes, every single thorn piercing his flesh a hundredfold as Margaret stared without saying a word. "Ahem." He cleared his throat as he managed to get to his feet despite being trapped in the center of one of the bushes. As he pulled a branch from his hair, a shower of wrinkled brown rose petals drifted down his shoulders. "You are especially . . . vibrant today, Violet. I brought this for Baby Georgie." He thrust the torn, dirtied rabbit at Violet, who received it with a bemused air. One of the buttons had come off and the silk was stained green and brown. "Madame Gault," he said, bowing to Margaret. "So lovely to see you again." No matter how strongly Grantham willed it, Margaret did not speak to him in return. Instead, she bent her knee a scant inch in a desultory curtsey, her lush mouth twisted like the clasp of a coin purse, no doubt to hold inside the names she was calling him in her head. He had a good idea what some of them were, considering he most likely had taught them to her. Grantham hadn't seen Margaret for thirteen years until their reunion-if one could call it that-a year and a half ago in the small parlor of Athena's Retreat. He hadn't exactly met the moment then, either-although to be fair, there'd been a hedgehog involved. The handful of times he encountered her since, she'd avoided meeting his eyes with her own, as though he were an inconsequential shadow cast by their past. Someone to be dismissed. Someone who had broken her heart and whom she would never forgive. "See who is come to live in England for good." Violet linked her arm with Margaret's and beamed at her friend. This was news.

When Margaret had come to stay at Athena's Retreat a year and half ago to complete an engineering project for her father-in-law's firm, Grantham had hoped she'd stay but she returned to Paris after three months. He'd asked Violet if Margaret might ever return, but Violet had doubted it. "She's one of the only women engineers in Europe with an excellent reputation. Why give up a dream hard fought to come back to England and fight all over again?" Violet had asked. Something had changed, however, and now Margaret was home. His heart leapt in his chest and the bitter orange flavor of hope flooded his mouth. "Clean yourself up and come inside for tea," Violet said to him now. Margaret did not echo the invitation. Instead, she tightened her hold on a stylish carpet bag and accompanied Violet and Arthur into the building. There are moments in life when the world shifts as though a door has opened somewhere out of sight. Whether a person runs toward that opened door or not depends on how fast they're stuck in place. Grantham considered for a moment how painful it would be to get himself unstuck. Although the tangle of branches in front of him twisted menacingly, he pulled a deep breath of resolution into his lungs alongside the scents of rosehips and crushed greenery. Gritting his teeth, he made his way through the thorns toward the open door.

Excerpted from A Love by Design by Elizabeth Everett Copyright © 2023 by Elizabeth Everett. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. 

[uwmspeccoll]

Whitewashing Lascaux, 2008. Leake Street Tunnel, Waterloo Station, London. Created for the Cans Festival, a 3-day street art street festival hosted and organized by Banksy in a tunnel under Waterloo Station.

Happy Choppers, 2002. Hoxton, London. Produced during the "Operation Enduring Freedom" campaign in Afghanistan.

Kissing Coppers, 2004. Originally in Trafalgar Street, Brighton, UK. In 2011, it was cut out and shipped to New York to be sold by art dealer Stephan Keszler at a 2014 auction in Miami for $575,000. A replica has replaced the original.

Sweeping it Under the Carpet, 2006. Hoxton, London where it appeared on the side of the White Cube Gallery, but has since been buffed.

Girl Searching Soldier, 2007. Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine. "Whilst the image is delightfully absurd, there is also a warning for Israeli occupying forces. One day, Banksy seems to be saying, our children will be investigating you for what you have done."

Police Sniper with Boy, 2007. Bristol, UK, but in 2012 was painted over with black paint and replaced by another work, the Queen as David Bowie, by a different street artist.

ATM Girl, 2007. Exmouth Market, Finsbury, London. Created a few months before the biggest financial crash since the 1930s.

Eavesdropping, 2014. Cheltenham, UK, a sleepy, conservative, quintessentially English market town in Gloucestershire, but just three miles away from the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).

Park, 2010. Downtown Los Angeles on the side of designer Tarina Tarantino's showroom a few blocks from the Los Angeles Theatre, painted just days before the premiere of Exit Through the Gift Shop at the Theatre.

Photographer Rat, 2005. Islington, London. "Rats are a good role model . . . they have no respect for the hierarchy of society and the have sex 50 times a day." -- Banksy.

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Decorative Sunday: BANKSY

Decorative art, street art, fine art, political cartoon, all four? Where's B**ksy?, an unauthorized selection of works by the infamous street artist by street art specialist Xavier Tapies published by Gingko Press in Berkeley, California in 2016, is the first survey of Banksy's art career from 2002 to 2016. Arranged chronologically, every period has a double-spread world map showing where each of the stencils was painted, what happened to the work (destroyed/sold/auctioned/still there) as well as a summary of the direction Banksy’s art took in that period.

There is Always Hope, 2002. East staircase leading up to Waterloo Bridge, Southbank, London.

View more posts featuring Decorative Plates.

[dipperdesperado]

libraries are solarpunk af

Solarpunk is a movement that envisions a future where we're responding intelligently to the environmental and social issues we face, with a focus on decentralized, sustainable, and community-driven solutions. Instead of using technology as a tool for exploitation, we harness it to support human needs and ecological health.

One concept that fits within the solarpunk framework is the Library of Things. A Library of Things is a community resource that allows people to borrow tools, equipment, and other goods that they only need occasionally or for a short period of time, instead of having to buy or rent them. This is a great way to enact solarpunk values with relatively low friction.

This model allows for more democratic access to stuff, while also curbing waste and consumerism. If you borrow from a Library of Things, that’s less stuff that you have to buy if you donate to a library, that empowers the rest of the folks using it.

This library can become a connective tissue for the community, turning it into a network of care, instead of individuals in proximity. This immediately makes that proximity meaningful, where users of the library are more likely to chat, form friendships, and build skills together that make the community better overall.

Libraries like this can also create a fertile ground for experimentation and creativity. When people have access to tools and things that they wouldn’t otherwise, combined with others to bounce ideas off of, this space can act as a launchpad for new ideas and designs to respond to community issues.

One of the most exciting things about this idea is that it’s already being implemented in some places. Toronto, Berkeley, and London all have their own takes on this.

Libraries are already super cool, and so having the ability to build a local solidarity economy around the library concept (while adding things to the design to make it more liberatory) is a really cool concept. Stuff like this is how we’ll get to a solarpunk future.

[clouds-of-wings]

The brain is the organ that learns, so it is designed to be changed by your experiences. It still amazes me but it’s true: Whatever we repeatedly sense and feel and want and think is slowly but surely sculpting neural structure. As you read this, in the five cups of tofu-like tissue inside your head, nested amidst a trillion support cells, 80-100 billion neurons are signaling each other in a network with about half a quadrillion connections called synapses. All this incredibly fast, complex, and dynamic neural activity is continually changing your brain. Active synapses become more sensitive, new synapses start growing within minutes, busy regions get more blood since they need more oxygen and glucose to do their work, and genes inside neurons turn on or off. Meanwhile, less active connections wither away in a process sometimes called neural Darwinism: the survival of the busiest. All mental activity—sights and sounds, thoughts and feelings, conscious and unconscious processes—is based on underlying neural activity. Much mental and therefore neural activity flows through the brain like ripples on a river, with no lasting effects on its channel. But intense, prolonged, or repeated mental/neural activity—especially if it is conscious—will leave an enduring imprint in neural structure, like a surging current reshaping a riverbed. In the saying in neuroscience: Neurons that fire together, wire together. Mental states become neural traits. Day after day, your mind is building your brain. This is what scientists call “experience-dependent neuroplasticity,” which is a hot area of research these days. For example, London taxi drivers memorizing the city’s spaghetti snarl of streets have thickened neural layers in their hippocampus, the region that helps make visual-spatial memories; like building a muscle, these drivers worked a part of their brain and grew new tissue there. Moving from the cab to the cushion, mindfulness meditators have increased gray matter—which means a thicker cortex—in three key regions: prefrontal areas behind the forehead that control attention; the insula, which we use for tuning into ourselves and others; and the hippocampus. Your experiences don’t just grow new synapses, remarkable as that is by itself, but also somehow reach down into your genes—into little strips of atoms in the twisted molecules of DNA inside the nuclei of neurons – and change how they operate. For instance, if you routinely practice relaxation, it will increase the activity of genes that calm down stress reactions, making you more resilient.

-- Rick Hanson for The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley: How to grow the good in your brain

[sebssunshine]

im bored here’s some derry girls headcanons

michelle went to cosmology school instead of uni and worked as a hair dresser for several years.

when she’s in her mid 30s she ends up inheriting a bar from some distance uncle and turns it into a gay bar

she’s the head bartender and owner and they run drag brunch out of it on sundays

claire moved to california after graduating from uni to attend law school

she’s now a corporate lawyer living in berkeley with her long term girlfriend who owns a pottery studio

they met when claire took a class there after someone told her it was good for anxiety

orla floated around for a while after the show ended before eventually settling in edinburgh and helps run a daycare

they found out what being trans was in 2002 and came out as nonbinary

james and erin dated briefly before they went to uni but decided to break up because they weren’t sure they could do long distance

after uni james ends up moving back to london and works at a lighting technician for film and television

when they reboot doctor who in 2009 he’s the head lighting designer and is having the best time

erin moves to new york after uni and works as a writer

she’s published two collections of short stories a play and one novel and is now working on her own tv series

erin and james meet up again in new york in the modern day by accident and they reconnect after several years of not speaking

after several months of long distance between london and new york they take the leap and get back together

[justforbooks]

Richard Serra, who has died aged 85, was a remarkable cultural figure – a sculptor who belonged to the generation of American minimalists, was associated with process art and made experimental films, yet evoked something of an earlier, more heroic age. The critic Robert Hughes described him as “the last abstract expressionist”.

Although this statement stretches the point, Serra’s interest in the processes of sculpture led him to some extravagant gestural acts that belie the severity of his grand public commissions. Weight and Measure, made in the early 1990s for what is now Tate Britain, exemplified his austere side, with its massive steel forms designed to counter the building’s overbearing classicism. However, some of his other works, such as the twisting, “torqued” structures installed at the Guggenheim in Bilbao in 2005, are positively baroque.

Curled around an existing sculpture, Snake, that was commissioned for the museum’s opening in 1997, these steel works, dominated by ellipses and spirals, articulate spaces in which the gallery visitor can wander. They are monumental enough to take on Frank Gehry’s grandiose architecture, but, with their patinated surfaces and curved forms, also have an intimate, sensual quality. Above all, Serra’s sculptures create a remarkable interaction with the public and a strong experience of gradual discovery – hence the installation’s title, The Matter of Time.

His works have proved popular with curators, but are not confined to museums. They have appeared in settings as diverse as the Tuileries garden in Paris, the Federal Plaza in New York, and the Qatari desert, attracting responses from intense admiration to a public inquiry. One of his sculptures, Fulcrum, was put up in 1987 at Broadgate outside Liverpool Street station in London. It manages to combine monumentality with fragility, made of weathered steel plates that appear to support each other precariously.

He was born in San Francisco into a family that provided a foundation for his later career as a sculptor in metal. His father, Tony, who was from Majorca, was a pipe-fitter in a naval shipyard. His mother, Gladys (nee Fineberg), who was the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Odessa, used to introduce her son as “Richard, the artist” and was, later, touchingly enthusiastic when he began to make his way in New York. Serra himself laboured in steel mills during his time as a student and subsequently, in 1979, made a compelling film, Steelmill/Stahlwerk, about German workers in the industry.

Serra began his studies in 1957 at the University of California in Berkeley, graduating from the institution’s Santa Barbara campus with a degree in English literature. He followed this in 1961 with a three-year course in painting at Yale University, New Haven – a period in which he also worked as a teaching assistant and as a proof-reader for Joseph Albers’s book Interaction of Color (1963). At Yale he encountered such luminaries as Philip Guston, Robert Rauschenberg, Ad Reinhardt and Frank Stella, before winning a fellowship that took him to Europe in 1964.

In Paris, Serra was profoundly impressed by the sculpture of Constantin Brâncuși, but in Florence the following year he continued to paint, producing coloured grids in timed conditions controlled by a stopwatch. It was only with his first exhibition, at the Galleria La Salita in Rome in 1966, that he made a definitive move away from painting, filling cages with live and stuffed animals.

After moving to New York in the same year, Serra initially survived by setting himself up as a furniture remover, together with his friends, the composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich. Serra’s artistic development at this time was rapid, moving from experiments with rubber, fibreglass and neon tubing to the metal sculpture for which he became renowned. He soon began his long-term association with the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, in whose Warehouse annex he was photographed in 1969 throwing molten lead at the wall with a ladle.

In the same year Serra refined this procedure by splashing the metal against a small steel plate stuck into the corner of Jasper Johns’s studio. The “castings” produced when the lead cooled down were rough, expressive forms, but this project also inspired Serra to create more impersonal pieces, in which metal sheets were wedged into the angles of rooms, leaned against each other or pinned to the wall by lead pipes. His emphasis on objective phenomena – mass, gravity and other physical forces – can also be seen in his remarkable experimental films.

In Hand Catching Lead (1968), the hand is in fact the artist’s but it is shown disembodied, trying to grasp rather than cast pieces of falling lead, which it drops or misses altogether. The repetition of this fundamentally pointless act gives the film a serial quality, akin to the celluloid process itself.

Serra’s engagement with the cutting edge also led him to work with the land artists Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt. In 1970 he assisted them with Spiral Jetty at the Great Salt Lake in Utah and, after Smithson’s death in 1973, Serra helped to complete Amarillo Ramp in an artificial lake in Texas. His own site-specific sculptures included Spin Out: For Bob Smithson (1972-73), in the park-like surroundings of the Kröller-Müller Museum at Otterlo in the Netherlands. Here the three converging steel plates interacted with each other and their environment, exemplifying Serra’s aim that “the entire space becomes a manifestation of sculpture”.

The 1970s was a difficult decade in Serra’s life. In 1971 a worker was killed in an accident during the installation of one of Serra’s sculptures outside the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. His five-year marriage to the artist Nancy Graves ended in 1970, and his mother’s suicide in 1977 was followed two years later by the death of his father. However, in that decade he also met his future wife, the art historian Clara Weyergraf, with whom he collaborated on Steelmill/Stahlwerk. Clara was also to play a vital role in shaping his sculpture, as well as giving her name to Clara-Clara, a powerful, curvilinear work that was installed in the Tuileries garden in 1983. The history of this piece exemplifies Serra’s problems in making site-specific art, since it was originally intended to feature in a show at the Pompidou Centre, but at a late stage was deemed to be too heavy.

Clara-Clara’s travails were minor in comparison to the controversies surrounding Tilted Arc, a sculpture 36 metres long, set up at the Federal Plaza in Manhattan in 1981. Condemned for being intrusive, a magnet for graffiti artists and even a security risk, it was eventually removed in 1989, four years after a public hearing in which a majority of witnesses had advocated its preservation.

Despite this setback, Serra’s career continued to flourish. He had two retrospectives, in 1986 and 2007, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which also devoted a permanent room to his monumental work Equal (2015), as well as major exhibitions at home and abroad. He showed frequently with his gallery, Gagosian, in London, New York and Paris, most recently in 2021.

In 2001 he received a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the Venice Biennale, in 2015 the Légion d’honneur in France and, three years later, the J Paul Getty Medal.

During his latter years, Serra became heavily involved with public projects in Qatar, above all the four steel plates, rising to over 14 metres and spanning more than a kilometre, erected west of Doha in 2014. Known as East-West/West-East, the work engages spectacularly with its surroundings, the gypsum plateaux of the Brouq nature reserve in the Dukhan desert. Serra himself described it as “the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done”.

He is survived by Clara.

🔔 Richard Serra, artist, born 2 November 1938; died 26 March 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[berkeleykitchens]

Your Guide to the Best Kitchen Worktops in London

Introduction

Updating your kitchen worktop is one of the most impactful changes you can make in a kitchen renovation. With so many options available, it can be challenging to decide which material is best for your home. In this blog, we'll guide you through some of the top kitchen worktop materials available in London and introduce you to Berkeley Kitchens, a premier provider of high-quality worktops in the area.

The Importance of Choosing the Right Worktop

A kitchen worktop is more than just a surface; it's where you prepare meals, gather with family, and even entertain guests. Therefore, choosing the right material is crucial. Here are a few factors to consider:

Durability: Can it withstand daily use?

Maintenance: How easy is it to clean and maintain?

Aesthetics: Does it complement your kitchen design?

Popular Kitchen Worktop Materials

Quartz Worktops

Advantages: Highly durable, non-porous, and available in many colors and styles.

Drawbacks: Generally more expensive than other materials.

Ideal For: Modern kitchens that require a sleek, low-maintenance surface.

Granite Worktops

Advantages: Natural beauty with unique patterns, extremely durable, and heat resistant.

Drawbacks: Needs sealing to prevent stains.

Ideal For: Kitchens that benefit from a luxurious, natural look.

Marble Worktops

Advantages: Timeless elegance, enhances home value.

Drawbacks: Prone to scratches and stains, requires careful maintenance.

Ideal For: Elegant kitchen designs where appearance is a priority.

Why Berkeley Kitchens?

When it comes to finding the Best Kitchen Worktops in London, Berkeley Kitchens stands out. They offer a comprehensive selection of top-quality materials, including marble, granite, and quartz. Serving London and the surrounding areas, Berkeley Kitchens is renowned for their commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. Their experienced team can help you select the perfect worktop and ensure a seamless installation process.

Tips for Choosing the Perfect Worktop

Assess Your Needs: Consider how you use your kitchen. If you cook frequently, a durable and low-maintenance material like quartz might be best.

Budget Considerations: High-end materials like marble and granite can be more expensive, but they also add value to your home.

Style Preferences: Choose a material that complements your kitchen’s design. For a contemporary look, quartz is ideal, while granite and marble suit more traditional styles.

Conclusion

Selecting the right kitchen worktop is crucial for both the functionality and aesthetic appeal of your kitchen. Whether you prefer the durability of quartz, the natural beauty of granite, or the timeless elegance of marble, Berkeley Kitchens has you covered. Their extensive range and expert advice make them a top choice for kitchen worktops in London. Visit Berkeley Kitchens to explore your options and find the perfect worktop for your home.

[terrainofheartfelt]

Sort of inspired by your discussion of Jenny needing to go to London alone to really grow into herself and mature as a person, in an ideal world in which none of the main characters were forcibly tethered to the UES or its more toxic inhabitants post-high school, how do you generally - like broad strokes - imagine them developing as people in college and throughout their twenties? I always wonder where everyone might have ended up had they not been constrained by the type of narrative they were living in, and I’d love to hear any headcanons you have on the subject!

I've been thinking about this on and off since i received it (an embarrassingly - for me - amount of time ago) and now finally feel like I can answer.

because, like, what if we weren't constrained by the harsh realities of making tv? what if the rules meant that they could leave new york?

well, first, let's dovetail off jen moving to london and blossoming, and send eric along with her. he can go to cambridge, or any of the other big name universities in the area, and he and jenny would be flatmates and live their own hilarious queer sitcom of being students in london.

I've already plugged nads' yale au in my answers this evening, but I still really like the idea of dan and blair attending yale, and outside of the maelstrom of manhattan drama, they settle into their own selves and learn they could actually...like each other? and then they fall in LOVE as far as careers, they are the most driven. and we've talked about novelist dan and editress blair and art historian blair and college prof dan.....but lately I've been thinking about blair working in costuming. It's not high fashion design, but I think it's a great synthesis of the things we know blair loves: literature, film, history, art history & fashion history, Evil Dictator of Good Taste, being a specialist and big boss on a niche subject...yeah...

i still enjoy the idea of vanessa being at nyu, or at another arts college in nyc, and making her own way and building her own story (without being boxed in to the secondary character of anyone else's story!) I like the idea of her attending Tisch too, and expanding her skill set into screenwriting in that way.

to plug another au by a friend, S's goodbye stranger introduced the concept of Serena attending Berkeley, and I LOVE it. I love that for her. Berserk-ley. I think that school in that part of the country would be where Serena would really thrive. She becomes a full glamorous SF queen. perhaps she opens a coffee shop. Blair is outwardly mortified but inwardly very proud.

As for Nate, I think he is the character who really should take a gap year. It's never questioned, but the way he is yanked around by the collar those first two seasons, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense that nate would decide that he needs some time to figure out what it is he wants. sidebar: bc the serena gap year felt disingenuous in many ways, yk? serena was so eager to leave new york and go to school and study. she likes learning, we see it, and the opportunity to reinvent herself that college would provide....why would she walk away from it? except for TV Reasons. so, I like the thought of nate taking at least a year. traveling, volunteering, maybe he takes a community college course or two. he falls off the grid for a while and he realizes how healthy and how happy he feels without the constant eyes and pressure of his family & gossip girl. and after that time, he's found what he actually wants to do, and goes to school to do it. -- as always, I'm fond of nate working in health care, as a nurse or pt or something, but it could really be anything. teacher? chef? social worker? children's librarian? (actually culinary student nate has come up in convos with ivy & cherry before and I am into it.)

and uhhhhhh i guess chip wiskers can crash his inherited business and money into the ground bc lets be real that fucko would try to launch his own cryptocurrency and since he seems to hold such disdain for education and self-betterment, he stagnates and falls off the face of the earth byeeee

[topengineeringacourseabroad1]

Study Engineering Abroad for Indian Students: A Comprehensive Guide

Engineering is a career path that combines innovation, technology, and problem-solving. For Indian students, studying engineering abroad offers not only a globally recognized degree but also exposure to cutting-edge facilities, international networks, and unique cultural experiences. This blog explores everything you need to know about studying engineering abroad, including popular destinations, top courses, costs, and the benefits of this transformative journey.

Why Study Engineering Abroad?

1. World-Class Education and Facilities

Studying engineering abroad provides access to advanced laboratories, research opportunities, and globally renowned faculty. Countries like the USA, Germany, and Australia are home to some of the best engineering universities offering industry-aligned curriculums.

2. Global Career Opportunities

A degree from an internationally acclaimed university enhances employability. Graduates often have better chances of securing high-paying jobs globally, especially in fields like AI, robotics, and civil engineering.

3. Cultural Exposure

Living abroad helps students develop global perspectives, cultural adaptability, and communication skills. These soft skills are crucial for a successful engineering career.

Popular Destinations for Indian Students

1. United States

Top Universities: MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley

Courses to Consider: Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering

Why Choose the USA?: The USA offers a strong emphasis on research and innovation, providing access to top-tier industries for internships and employment.

2. Germany

Top Universities: Technical University of Munich, RWTH Aachen University

Courses to Consider: Mechanical Engineering, Automotive Engineering, Electrical Engineering

Why Choose Germany?: Germany is famous for its tuition-free education policies at public universities and a robust focus on technical programs.

3. Canada

Top Universities: University of Toronto, University of British Columbia

Courses to Consider: Civil Engineering, Software Engineering, Environmental Engineering

Why Choose Canada?: Canada provides a welcoming environment for international students with work opportunities post-graduation.

4. Australia

Top Universities: University of Melbourne, Australian National University

Courses to Consider: Mining Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering

Why Choose Australia?: High-quality education and easier student visa policies make Australia a favorite among Indian students.

5. United Kingdom

Top Universities: Imperial College London, University of Cambridge

Courses to Consider: Structural Engineering, Electrical Engineering

Why Choose the UK?: The UK offers one-year master’s programs and excellent research opportunities in engineering disciplines.

Best Engineering Courses in Abroad

Studying engineering abroad provides a variety of specialized courses tailored to modern industry needs. Here are some of the most sought-after options:

Computer Science and Engineering Perfect for students passionate about AI, machine learning, and software development.

Mechanical Engineering A versatile branch that covers design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems.

Civil Engineering Ideal for those interested in infrastructure development and sustainable construction.

Electrical and Electronics Engineering Focuses on electrical systems, semiconductors, and circuit design.

Aerospace Engineering Offers opportunities in space exploration, aviation, and aeronautics.

Admission Process for Indian Students

1. Eligibility Criteria

Academic Requirements: A strong academic background in mathematics, physics, and chemistry is essential.

Language Proficiency: English proficiency tests like IELTS or TOEFL are mandatory for most countries.

2. Entrance Exams

SAT/ACT: Required for undergraduate programs in the USA.

GRE: Needed for master’s programs in engineering fields.

GMAT: For management-related engineering courses.

3. Documentation

Academic transcripts

Statement of Purpose (SOP)

Letters of Recommendation (LORs)

Resume/CV

Valid Passport

4. Visa Process

Each country has specific student visa requirements. For example:

USA: F-1 Visa

Canada: Study Permit

Australia: Subclass 500

Cost of Studying Engineering Abroad

1. Tuition Fees

USA: $20,000–$50,000 per year

Germany: Free or €1,500 per semester (public universities)

Canada: CAD 15,000–$30,000 per year

UK: £10,000–£26,000 per year

Australia: AUD 20,000–$45,000 per year

2. Living Expenses

Living expenses vary based on location and lifestyle. A rough estimate:

USA: $10,000–$15,000 per year

Germany: €8,000–€10,000 per year

Canada: CAD 10,000–$12,000 per year

Scholarships for Indian Students

Several scholarships and grants are available for Indian students pursuing engineering abroad:

Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowship (USA)

DAAD Scholarships (Germany)

Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Canada)

Australia Awards Scholarships

Chevening Scholarships (UK)

Challenges and How to Overcome Them

1. Financial Constraints

Apply for multiple scholarships and student loans.

Consider part-time jobs to manage living expenses.

2. Cultural Adjustment

Engage with international student communities.

Learn the local language if studying in non-English speaking countries.

3. Academic Pressure

Utilize university counseling services.

Maintain a balanced schedule for studies and extracurricular activities.

Tips for Aspiring Students

Start the application process early.

Research universities and their course offerings thoroughly.

Prepare for entrance exams well in advance.

Consult study abroad consultants for guidance.

Conclusion

Studying engineering abroad for Indian students opens doors to unparalleled educational opportunities, global exposure, and career growth. With the right planning, research, and determination, aspiring engineers can turn this dream into reality. By choosing the right course and destination, Indian students can embark on a fulfilling academic journey that equips them for a thriving engineering career.

If you're ready to take the next step, explore the engineering courses in abroad that match your goals, and start your application process today!

[reynaoverseas]

Top 10 Courses in Demand Globally: Universities and Career Opportunities

In today’s dynamic and evolving job market, choosing the right course of study is crucial for securing a successful and fulfilling career. Here are the top 10 courses that are in high demand globally, along with the universities offering them and the career opportunities they unlock.

Data Science and Analytics

Top Universities: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley

Career Opportunities: Data Scientist, Data Analyst, Machine Learning Engineer

Computer Science and IT

Top Universities: Carnegie Mellon University, University of Cambridge, National University of Singapore

Career Opportunities: Software Developer, Cybersecurity Specialist, IT Consultant

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Top Universities: University of Oxford, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), ETH Zurich

Career Opportunities: AI Researcher, Machine Learning Engineer, Robotics Engineer

Business Administration and Management

Top Universities: Harvard Business School, INSEAD, London Business School

Career Opportunities: Business Consultant, Marketing Manager, Operations Manager

Finance and Accounting

Top Universities: University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), London School of Economics (LSE), University of Chicago (Booth)

Career Opportunities: Financial Analyst, Investment Banker, Chartered Accountant

Medicine and Healthcare

Top Universities: Johns Hopkins University, University of Toronto, University of Melbourne

Career Opportunities: Physician, Surgeon, Healthcare Administrator

Engineering (Various Disciplines)

Top Universities: Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Tokyo

Career Opportunities: Civil Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, Electrical Engineer

Law

Top Universities: Yale Law School, University of Cambridge, University of Melbourne

Career Opportunities: Lawyer, Legal Advisor, Corporate Counsel

Environmental Science and Sustainability

Top Universities: University of California, Berkeley, University of Oxford, University of British Columbia

Career Opportunities: Environmental Consultant, Sustainability Specialist, Conservation Scientist

Digital Marketing

Top Universities: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of California, Davis, IE Business School

Career Opportunities: Digital Marketing Manager, SEO Specialist, Content Strategist

These courses are designed to equip you with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in today’s competitive job market. Top universities around the world offer specialized programs that are aligned with industry trends, ensuring that graduates are well-prepared for the future.

Ready to embark on a journey towards a rewarding career? Explore these in-demand courses with Reyna Overseas and find the right university that matches your ambitions. Your global career starts with the right education!

[civilera1]

Design Courses for Civil Engineers: Elevate Your Expertise

Civil engineering is a vast field encompassing the design, construction, and maintenance of infrastructure such as roads, bridges, buildings, and water supply systems. For civil engineers, staying updated with the latest design techniques and technologies is crucial. Design courses tailored for civil engineers offer an excellent opportunity to enhance skills, stay competitive, and advance in the profession. Here’s an in-depth look at some of the top design courses for civil engineers.

1. Structural Design Courses

a. Advanced Steel Design

What You Learn: This course focuses on the design of steel structures, covering aspects like load and resistance factor design, connections, and the design of various steel members.

Skills Gained: Understanding of steel properties, design calculations, and practical application of steel design codes.

Top Institutions: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

b. Concrete Structure Design

What You Learn: This course covers the principles of designing concrete structures, including beams, columns, slabs, and footings.

Skills Gained: Proficiency in concrete mix design, reinforcement detailing, and use of relevant design codes.

Top Institutions: University of California, Berkeley, National Institute of Technology (NITs), University of Tokyo.

2. Geotechnical Design Courses

a. Foundation Engineering

What You Learn: The course covers the design of shallow and deep foundations, including soil investigation, bearing capacity, and settlement analysis.

Skills Gained: Expertise in soil mechanics, foundation types, and design methodologies.

Top Institutions: Purdue University, Delft University of Technology, IIT Madras.

b. Retaining Structures and Slope Stability

What You Learn: Focuses on the design of retaining walls, sheet piles, and slope stability analysis.

Skills Gained: Analytical skills in earth pressure theories, stability analysis, and retaining structure design.

Top Institutions: University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich, University of Sydney.

3. Transportation Design Courses

a. Highway Design

What You Learn: This course involves the design of highways and urban roads, including geometric design, pavement design, and traffic analysis.

Skills Gained: Proficiency in using design software, understanding of traffic flow principles, and pavement material selection.

Top Institutions: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Imperial College London, IIT Roorkee.

b. Railway Engineering

What You Learn: Covers the design and maintenance of railway tracks, signaling, and train dynamics.

Skills Gained: Knowledge in track alignment, rail material selection, and railway systems.

Top Institutions: University of Birmingham, Technical University of Munich, IIT Kharagpur.

4. Environmental Design Courses

a. Water Resources Engineering

What You Learn: Focuses on the design and management of water supply systems, sewage systems, and flood control measures.

Skills Gained: Expertise in hydrology, hydraulic design, and environmental impact assessment.

Top Institutions: University of California, Davis, University of Alberta, IIT Guwahati.

b. Environmental Impact Assessment

What You Learn: This course involves assessing the environmental impact of civil engineering projects and developing mitigation strategies.

Skills Gained: Skills in environmental law, impact analysis, and sustainable design practices.

Top Institutions: University of Queensland, University of Cape Town, IIT Bombay.

5. Software-Based Design Courses

a. AutoCAD for Civil Engineers

What You Learn: Mastering AutoCAD for drafting and designing civil engineering projects.

Skills Gained: Proficiency in creating detailed engineering drawings, 3D modeling, and design documentation.

Top Institutions: Coursera, Udemy, Skillshare.

b. Building Information Modeling (BIM)

What You Learn: The course covers the use of BIM software like Revit for designing, planning, and managing construction projects.

Skills Gained: Expertise in 3D modeling, project visualization, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Top Institutions: Harvard University, University of Salford, FutureLearn.

Conclusion

Enrolling in design courses specifically tailored for civil engineering designing courses can significantly boost your career by enhancing your technical skills and knowledge. Whether you’re interested in structural design, geotechnical engineering, transportation systems, or environmental engineering, there is a course to match your needs. By continually upgrading your skills, you ensure that you remain relevant and competitive in the ever-evolving field of civil engineering.

[fullfestivalbouquet]

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With London Marketing Company as your partner, we'll provide you with only the best experts in the field who will understand your business and goals. At London Marketing Company, our experts partner with you to maximize your business to its full potential and stand out within its respected industry. We believe that anything is possible when the right people connect.

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[sliceofshoyou]

A Rose by Any Other Name Would Be a Pokéball: A Study on How Anime Encourages Audiences to Read into Queer Subtext: Annotated Bibliography

Bouissou, Jean-Marie. “Manga: A Historical Overview.” Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014. Accessed 1 May 2024. The author of this chapter is a French historian, specializing in contemporary Japan. He uses his research and knowledge to lay out the history of manga. The author found that manga delves into a lot of taboo subjects. Through his analysis, the author of the article below found that the shojo anime and manga Revolutionary Girl Utena contains taboo subjects like Bouissou discusses in this chapter.

Cornejo, Giancarlo. "The Sedgwickian Queerness of an Anime Lesbian: Reading Revolutionary Girl Utena." Lectora, no. 27, 2021, pp. 211-226. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/sedgwickian-queerness-anime-lesbian-reading/docview/2602732076/se-2, doi:https://doi.org/10.1344/Lectora2021.27.10. Accessed 1 May 2024. The author is Assistant Professor in the Division of Cinema and Media studies at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, and he holds a Ph.D. in Rhetoric with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality from the University of California, Berkeley. He uses his expertise in the field to analyze how the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena answers the question of “How to Bring Your Kids Up Gay,” an essay by Eve Sedgwick that argues that queerness is a desirable condition of life. The author found that in Revolutionary Girl Utena, queer femininity is presented as being vast. The character Juri becomes a vessel for queer desire and projection by rejecting heteronormativity. The anime also inverts the male homosocial triangle. This article supports the findings in Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives because the author discovered that Revolutionary Girl Utena deals with unconventional and taboo topics such as: a girl main character openly wearing a boy’s uniform while using the male first person pronoun ore, and an inverted homosocial triangle.

Jackson, Maghan M. "’Reading Too Much into it’: Affective Excess, Extrapolative Reading, and Queer Temporalities in MCU Fanfiction." Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, vol. 63, no. 1, 2023, pp. 30-52. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/reading-too-much-into-affective-excess/docview/2913150609/se-2. Accessed 6 May 2024. The author is a lecturer in the Department of Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the Ohio State University. She holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Art History and English Literature from Kalamazoo College, and a Masters degree in Sociology from Goldsmiths, University of London, where her concentration was in Gender, Media & Culture, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies from The Ohio State University. Through fanfiction, she engages José Esteban Muñoz's theory of queer utopian temporality. The close-reading of several fanfics of the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Anthony Russo and Joe Russo) serve to demonstrate fanfiction's utility in imagining queer utopian temporalities through the practice of "reading too much into" narratives. She also analyzes interactions within fan communities centering around the phrase “reading too much into it.” The author found that extrapolative fanfiction disrupts “straight time” by making queerness an imaginable possibility. She concludes that “reading too much into” media is necessary for accessing the possibility that characters could be queer. Through reading Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers slash fanfiction, she explains how Steve’s relationship to time and excess make queer utopian future easily imaginable. These findings are similar to Van den Berg’s below who found that gender and sexuality are fluid, which disrupts heteronormativity just as extrapolative slash fanfiction does.

Van den Berg, Maria Elizabeth Susanna (Elbie). "Bodies as Open Projects: Reflections on Gender and Sexuality." South African Journal of Philosophy, vol. 30, no. 3, 2011, pp. 385-402. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/bodies-as-open-projects-reflections-on-gender/docview/894273301/se-2. Accessed 1 May 2024.

The author is a professor of philosophy at the University of South Africa. She uses real-life examples to share her perspective on gender and sexuality. The author found that gender and sexuality are not binary or one-dimensional but instead fluid and ambiguous. In this way, her research corroborates Jackson’s in the article above because both articles discuss that humans are unfixed. Both articles were written through the perspective of “bodies as open projects,” meaning that gender and sexuality cannot be reduced to biological categories or cultural constructs, so they reject heteronormativity.

[berkeleykitchens]

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Transform your kitchen with premium quartz worktops from Berkeley Kitchens in London. Enjoy a wide range of colors and designs with up to 55% off. Visit our showroom today!

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[ayleshamcommunityaction]

CALL TO ACTION - WRITE TO YOUR WARD COUNCILLORS

View Berkeley's plans here

May 10th: Full proposals including building designs announced by Berkeley Homes

The first public meeting on the Aylesham development hosted by the council, is this Thursday 16 May at 19:15pm at the Harris Academy Peckham, (112 Peckham Rd, London SE15 5DZ).  

It is very important as many Peckham locals as possible attend this meeting.  Please come and bring friends and family with you.  The council have to see locals turn up en masse, and express their views on the current plans for this vital development in Peckham town centre.  The developer will also be there to give a presentation. 

In tandem with this, we also strongly encourage everyone to write to their local councillor about this development.   Attached is a template letter to use as a base, which also includes a link to find your local councillor's email, and recommendations for who to cc into the letter. 

TEMPLATE LETTER TO WARD COUNCILLORS

How to use this template:

1 Use the Council’s website https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/mgFindMember.aspx

to find your ward councillor(s)’ name and email

2 Use the template below to email / write to your ward councillor. You can make changes or additions to personalize the text. This is likely to increase its impact.

3     Send your email, cc’ing the following:

·       Rye Lane ward councillors: 

jasmine.ali@southwark.gov.uk

esme.dobson@southwark.gov.uk

chloe.tomlinson@southwark.gov.uk

·      Cabinet member for New Homes and Sustainable Development:

helen.dennis@southwark.gov.uk

·      ayleshamcommunityaction@gmail.com

Subject: Urgent need for meaningful community engagement on proposed Peckham redevelopment

Dear [name of ward councillor]

I want to express my concern about the plans for the Aylesham Centre and the lack of meaningful public consultation that has taken place. 

The site is a big opportunity for Peckham but the plans need to bring substantial benefits to local people and the negative effects need to be properly addressed.

Before any plans are submitted, I would like you to ensure well-advertised and structured public meetings take place. Views should be shared on what the right development is for Peckham. The impacts of the scheme should be discussed in detail and plans altered to reflect this feedback. This has not happened so far. These issues include:

·      The sustainability of high-rise housing in Peckham town centre, whether these homes will last and create communities not just housing units

·      The loss of local traders servicing disadvantaged communities because of rent hikes and reduced carparking

·      Increases in already high residential rents nearby

·      Pressure on health services and transport links

·      Impacts on health and wellbeing from overheating, air pollution, wind

I have material concerns about the proposals and how they will help Peckham. I see no evidence that the results of any research into the points above have been acted upon. I believe no scheme should be approved unless it provides:

·      A minimum of 50% truly affordable housing and buildings that are sustainable and affordable to live in

·      An integrated town centre and neighbourhood, that enhances what already makes Peckham special, attracts visitors and jobs, not an island of luxury homes and shops

·      Real improvements in transport, health, youth and social services

·      Meaningful green space for recreation and biodiversity

Yours sincerely,

 [Your name, address and postcode]

DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE HERE