Staple Inn

Staple Inn, Chancery Lane, London, originally uploaded by Craig Grobler.

Staple Inn is a building on the south side of High Holborn in London, England. Located near Chancery Lane tube station, it is used as the London office of the Institute of Actuaries and is the last surviving Inn of Chancery.

It was originally attached to Gray's Inn, which is one of the four Inns of Court. The Inns of Chancery fell into decay in the 19th century. All of them were dissolved, and most were demolished. Staple Inn is the only one which survives largely intact.

Staple Inn dates from 1585. The building was once the wool staple, where wool was weighed and taxed. It survived the Great Fire of London, was extensively damaged by a bomb in 1944, but was subsequently restored. It has a distinctive timber-framed façade and an internal courtyard. The historic interiors include a great hall. Much of the building is used by the Institute of Actuaries. The ground floor street frontage is let to shops and restaurants who are required to use quieter signage than they do on less sensitive buildings.

A newly-discovered mineral has been found to contain exactly the same elements as the large green crystals that rob the super-hero of his powers.Unlike the fictional rock, the real thing at London's Natural History Museum is white and powdery, emits no radiation, and comes from Serbia rather than outer space.

Blinkx Video: 'Kryptonite' discovered

But scientists who analysed the find were astonished to discover that its chemical composition matched a description of kryptonite in the film Superman Returns.In the 2006 movie, Superman's arch enemy Lex Luthor steals a kryptonite rock fragment from the Metropolis Museum.On the case are written the words "sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide with fluorine".

Arsenal football fans, Highbury, London originally uploaded by Craig Grobler.

Being based near the Emirates Stadium, at least once a month (or when ever they have these things) there is a large influx of Arsenal soccer fans to watch a game.

This evening Arsenal were playing Manchester City as part of the Barclays Premiership. Arsenal won 3-1 win.

From wiki: The Emirates Stadium is a football stadium located on Ashburton Grove in Holloway, north London, and the home of Arsenal Football Club since it opened in July 2006. The stadium has an all-seated capacity of 60,432, making it the second largest stadium in the Premiership after Old Trafford, and the third-largest stadium of any kind in London, after Wembley and Twickenham. During the planning and construction stages, it was known as Ashburton Grove before a naming rights deal with the airline Emirates was struck in October 2004. The stadium project cost £390 million, but not all was for the actual construction of the stadium itself.

Battersea Powerstation, London , originally uploaded by Craig Grobler.

Battersea Powerstation as shot by Tony Scott. One of my favourite landmarks in London. It was used by Pink Floyd on their "Animals" album cover. The picture is slightly tweaked in the style of Tony Scott 's red sky filter.

From Wiki: Battersea Power Station is a defunct coal-fired power station in Battersea, London, that was the first in a series of large coal-fired electrical generating facilities set up in England as part of the introduction of the National Grid power distribution system. The first part of the structure was built in 1939, and the station ceased electricity generation in 1983. Since then the site has remained largely unused, with numerous failed redevelopment plans from successive site owners. The building is the largest brick building in Europe and is notable for its original, lavish Art Deco interior fittings and decor. The station famously appears in The Beatles' 1965 movie Help! and on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals.

Sunshine film prop, London, originally uploaded by Craig Grobler.

I saw Danny Boyle's Sunshine yesterday. A Sci Fi film focusing on the crew of a space ship sent on a mission to re-ignite our dying sun. We left the cinema, popped into FOPP to pick up a book and on the way home walking past Planet Hollywood. By a quirky coincidence - noticed some props from the film in the window. Wild! One of the props was the uber cool retro mobius inspired space suits. The film is a mashup of popular sci fi celluloid with eco themes. Go see this film its great and easily one of the better sci fi film this decade. The cast are: Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Troy Garity, Cillian Murphy, Hiroyuki Sanada, Mark Strong, Benedict Wong and Michelle Yeoh. Story by Alex Garland.

Man! London is full of people again and summer is well and truly on its way. Again this picture was taken with my phone.

Foosball at Cafe Kick, originally uploaded by Craig Grobler.

I took this pic at Bar Kick, Shoreditch. Ben is off to Canada so farewell drinks were held at the popular foosball venue.

Foosball is the American corruption of fussball (pronounced the same), the German word for soccer-literally foot plus ball. While the sport has the more formal name of table soccer, to the American players who love it, it's foosball, or just foos.

Unfortunately, the origins of the game are not as easy to trace as those of its name. Like many games, it is quite possible that variations of foosball developed in different countries over roughly the same time period. Since organized soccer first entered the sports scene in the 1860s, the invention of soccer's table version can be safely dated sometime afterward, probably in the late 1800s. The earliest United States patent for a foosball table was registered in 1901, but it is generally agreed that foosball, like soccer, originated in western Europe.

I should say that the low quality of the pic is due to the use of my low res camera phone during a power failure.