ENGLISH, WE PRESUME

Este blog ha cerrado

2009-10-15T10:03:00.001+02:00

Este blog ha cerrado. Os espero en

http://dasklassenzimmer.blogspot.com

The strange case of advanced level in EOI

2009-09-22T20:02:00.001+02:00

September, 2009 Final Listening 2º NA

2009-09-12T09:38:00.001+02:00

More information:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7763044.stm

English Club: Human... good or evil?

2009-03-08T21:39:00.003+01:00

Hi!

Next Thursday 12th we will debate about morality: is the human being originally good or evil?

We will meet, as usual, at 20 in Yesqueros.

See you there!

English Club del 19 de Febrero: Multiculturalismo

2009-02-15T18:26:00.000+01:00

¡Hola a todos!

Después de la interesante charla de la semana pasada sobre la existencia de Dios y la vida después de la muerte, os animo a venir a la cita del próximo jueves 19, en donde trataremos el tema de "múltiples puntos de vista culturales". Aprovechando que hay gente de diferentes países, veremos diferencias en la forma de pensar de diferentes culturas. Habrá posibles representaciones de Inglaterra, Irlanda, Polonia, Noruega, Italia, Méjico, Uruguay y Argentina. (Y España, claro xD).

Si podéis traer más culturas, ¡bienvenidas serán! Por fin sabremos qué es lo que aman y odian de España xD

¡Nos vemoooos!

English Club: February's meetings

2009-01-29T05:56:00.001+01:00

Hi aaaaall!!

After the success of the first day (I consider a success having about 15 people in the fist meeting ^_^), let's summarize some of the things we said:

1. The meetings will finally be weekly! So, every Thursday we will meet there (well, bike-mounted people like Ful, Ana or me maybe will arrive a bit late the last Thursday of the month, because of the Critical Mass!). We will try to have one Monday per month in the future, for the people who cannot come on Thursday.
So, the next meetings will be February 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th. (In Yesqueros at 20.00, for the new contacts).

2. We can use some of the center resources, like cool water, a photocopier (and probably paper), TVs, video, blackboard (well, it's more a whiteboard xD) a projector and a sort of speakers. We can also bring some food to share, like snacks, chips and the like (except the natives (so far our friends Emma and Claire), who will always be invited ^_^).

3. The meetings can have a vast range of different dynamics. We can have debates, games, music games, video-forums... It's up to the person(s) who is in charge of the meeting. I will prepare the first two or three meetings, but I need volunteers for the following ones! (Well, with Claire's book of 100+ ideas of things to do, I think we will have enough ^_^).

That's all! See you next Thursday!!

Mmmm, acabo de recordar que prometí hacer una pequeña traducción xD

Resumiendo: que tendremos reuniones semanales, todos los jueves, y puede que algún lunes suelto para los que no puedan venir los jueves. Podemos hacer uso de los recursos del centro, como fotocopiadoras, teles y demás. Y hasta podemos traer comida de picoteo para compartir (excepto los nativos, que siempre estarán invitados por el resto). Las reuniones se pueden basar en diferentes dinámicas, un poco al arbitrio de quien las organice. Yo me hago cargo de las primeras, pero no tardaré en necesitar voluntarios para que preparen alguna.

¡Animaoooos! ^^

ENGLISH CLUB STARTS!!

2009-01-13T21:37:00.004+01:00

Hi all!

Finally, we have one reservation in Yesqueros for our club: It will be the first and third Thursday of every month, from 20 to 22. I have sent an email to some of you with all the details, so I can put it here aswell. Sorry for posting it in Spanish, but I'm a bit too lazy to translate it ^_^U

¡Hola a todos!

Tras haberos preguntado sobre vuestras preferencias de horas y días, finalmente ganaron los martes y jueves de 20 a 22 horas (por si alguien quiere saber por cuánto: el martes tuvo 17 votos, el jueves 16, lunes 14 y el resto de días por debajo de 10). He preguntado a la nueva coordinadora de Yesqueros disponibilidad para estos días, y aunque podríamos contar con una sala cualquiera de estos días, sólo podríamos disponer de la sala "buena" el jueves (es la sala grande, central, con sillas buenas y mesas, ideal para hacer reuniones de este tipo). ¡¡Así que empezaremos nuestro club de inglés los jueves en Yesqueros!! ^_^

Este jueves iba a ser demasiado precipitado, así que dejamos la primera reunión para la semana que viene. Y, siguiendo el plan inicial de hacer las reuniones cada dos semanas, empezaremos haciéndolas el primer y tercer jueves de cada mes. Pongámoslo en negrita, para aquellos que leen 200 emails al día y quieren resúmenes fácilmente digeribles:

1ª Reunión : Jueves 22 de Enero, de 20 a 22 horas.
2ª Reunión : Jueves 5 de Febrero, de 20 a 22 horas.
3ª Reunión : Jueves 19 de Febrero, de 20 a 22 horas.

Y las siguientes, ya sabéis, el primer y tercer jueves de cada mes, a la misma hora.

Esta primera reunión será introductoria, para conocernos mejor, ver el nivel y las expectativas de cada uno, y poner en común las posibles sugerencias. Las siguientes reuniones serán más temáticas.

Si no sabéis muy bien de qué va o dónde está Yesqueros, aquí su web informativa: http://www.informajoven.org/juventud/YESQUEROS.htm

¡Nos vemos el 22! :D

English Club: Introductory meeting

2008-12-13T16:10:00.003+01:00

Hi all agaaaaain!!

In Yesqueros, they told me that is better to wait until Jannuary in order to start the meeting in a regular basis (because they make 3-month schedules). But they permit us to have an introductory meeting during December.

So, that meeting will be next Thursday 18 (December), at 21.00 in Yesqueros. Here is a map (it's near Salzillo's Museum):

In the meeting, we will introduce ourselves, talk about the topics and activities we can cover, share our expectations, discuss about the available hours of everyone to make a reservation and the like. The idea is to settle down the basis of the club, which will start on Jannuary.

See you there ^_^

Use your language for something different to pass a june exam

2008-11-18T23:47:00.003+01:00

The Online Volunteering service is one of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme’s corporate tools to mobilize volunteers for development.

The Online Volunteering service connects volunteers with organizations working for sustainable human development:

Volunteers contribute their skills online to help organizations address development challenges.
Organizations collaborate with online volunteers over the Internet to strengthen the impact of their development work.

Through the Online Volunteering service, UNV offers:
A global platform for development organizations to advertise their online volunteering opportunities;

An easy-to-use opportunity search;

Robust and user-friendly tools to manage opportunities and volunteers;

Quality control of the volunteers’ and organizations’ online collaboration;

Access to experiences, best practices and lessons learned from organizations and volunteers worldwide;

Expertise in volunteer mobilization, volunteer management and online collaboration;

The possibility for volunteers and organizations to expand their networks;

The advantage of the universal reach and neutrality of the United Nations.

Online Volunteering in Translation

ENGLISH CLUB!!

2008-11-02T02:54:00.006+01:00

Greetings to all!!

My name is North. I know some of you from a German Stamtish some months ago. I have been talking with Fulgen about organizing an English (Conversation) Club in where we can practice our oral English. In the meetings we can have:

- Debates (like the advantages of transgenic beer or the basics of creating a new religion xD).
- Cine forums.
- Games based on speech.
- Everyday chat.
- Role play games.
- Anything that the attendants come up with (whatever permit us to talk English in a fun way ^^)

I'm about to reserve a room in Yesqueros place, where we can meet every week or every two weeks. Why in Yesqueros and not in a bar? Well, my experience with the "Erasmus Coffees" I have been organizing during these years showed the following advantages:

- No smoking! It's really a pleasure to return home and have no smoke smell all over your body... :)
- We can make there a wider range of activities (for instance, we can use the projector and the like).
- Easier to talk and to listen. In a bar there is a critical mass of about 5-6 people for which everybody can listen to everybody else. In case of 8+ people, it's impossible to listen a central conversation, and the people start talking only with the people beside them.
- It's gratis! (yes, the word exists xD). You don't have to feel forced to buy anything in order to talk English for a while.
- It's easier to be known by other people and increase assistance, as long as Yesqueros is a very active social meeting point.

Anyway, we can test it for a few months, and see if it works. If we like it, we continue with it. Else, we can rearrange the meetings in a bar or wherever. The important thing right now is to form a conversation group. :)

I suggest beginning the meetings every first and third Thursday of the month, from 20.00 to 22.00 in Yesqueros. Please feel free to suggest in the comments whatever day or hour is suitable for you, and we can arrange the meetings for what is best for the majority (if availabe in Yesqueros). You can make tell your opinion about:
- Which name would you like to have for the activity? English Club? Conversation Club? English, We Speak? The Murcian-English Dark Sect?
- How often? Once per week? Once per month? Once per life? xD
- What time is best for you? (Yesqueros closes at 22.00).
- We can reserve the first day to talk about the possible activities, but you can suggest right now if inspiration strikes you ;)

I need two DNIs photocopies for reserving the place (plus mine, of course).

See you!

English We Presume. Year II

2008-10-29T17:31:00.001+01:00

Our blog comes back to school again !!!!!!

2008-10-01T11:17:00.004+02:00

This blog is boiling but you can´t see the bubbles yet. Don´t take your eyes off the screen.

We count on you!!!!

Writing Workshop is over (let´s cry)

2008-09-04T09:12:00.002+02:00

The dark side of Coca-cola.(By Irene)

2008-09-04T08:55:00.002+02:00

What do you know about Coca-cola? In my case almost nothing, apart from been catch up with the huge business the company has. Few days ago, a friend, borrowed me an article titled “the black history of the black water”. Before reading the article I intuited what was going to tell, because all of us, more or less, have heard about the murky business multinationals have. Even that, I find quite unexpected most of the things the article said.

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Coca-cola is the most hand out drink all over the world. You can find it in almost 232 countries; much more countries than the Organisation of Unite Nations has. Coca-cola profits are higher than a great deal of poor countries budgets. The company blackmail and threaten small shopkeepers with exclusivity contracts.

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Coca-cola idea was born in Atlanta by Pemberton in 1880. It was Frank Robinson who designed coca-cola logo. Although they created the product and the logo, none of they took profit of it. Coca-cola business was created by Asa Candle. He was the only owner of the company. He started with a modest factory in Atlanta. In nearly five years, coca-cola arrived to: Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, Chicago and New York. Nor the 29 crack, neither first nor second world wards could decrease Coca-cola sales.

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And what about health issues? Doctors warned about: only after seventy two hours stomach will stop to be black due to of it ingestion. Only one Coca-cola has ten spoonfuls of sugar. Coca-cola Company is one of the most sugar consumers in the market, so they use transgenic sugar or they import them form South America. Owing to that, Coca-Cola Company has created grate troubles in some isolated villages.

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The first time coca-cola arrived to Europe hundreds of people were poisoned. Nor is only and isolate case, in June 1999 Belgian, Holland and Luxemburg retired them. A lot of cases like that took place in England in 2004 and in India in 1998.
Only two people know the unknown formula of Coca-cola (X7). They don’t know each other, they never travel in the same plane, they never eat the same meal and of course they never sleep in the same hotel.

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I was very frustrated with all the things I read. I am realistic and not optimistic at all; of course almost no one is going to stop drinking Coca-cola after reading the article. I don’t know the answer, neither the solution to that kind of companies. Because I am speaking about Coca-cola, but Nestle and Nike (only for instance) are very similar. They do whatever they want; it doesn’t matter if they are not respecting human rights, or even the law; because it is only market rules! The more you can pay, the more successful you will be. The dark side, of one, of the richest companies in the word.

P.S. If you want to read more, I will send you the article. Give me your email! (:

Doping (by Fulgencio Serrano)

2008-09-02T18:56:00.002+02:00

Sir, last August,17th was published in your newspaper – ENGLISH, WE PRESUME- an article, signed by Mati Bolaños, whereby author highlighted the risk of doping substances in sportsmen health. Even though being in according to her conclusions I would like to use this space to accurate some ideas exposed in the post.

First of all, no all doping substances are drugs or bad for health and no all drugs are doping substances. For instance, alcohol is a drug but sportsmen do not acquire any advantage and, on the other hand, a blood self transfusion is a doping activity that is not a risk for health.

Secondly, some doping substances are a risk to health depending on doses, so EPO (erythropoietin), is bad in high doses –risk of heart attack- and good for physiologic recovery in low doses.

Moreover, not every substance that helps to improve a sport results is a doping substance, for instance, water, glucose, salt, orange juice and the like. These products are called ergogenic aids, in other words, substances that improve the fitness without being hazardous for human body.

Finally, I want to comment about two invisible doping system, one accepted and the other one will be debated in the next few years, I mean, technological doping and genetic doping. We must realize that the improvement in sport results are not reached only with personal sacrifice but with owning the very modern pole vault, a bath suit made in NASA or another expensive materials far from the most of sportsmen economies. Regarding on genetic doping, who is going to deny body modifications in human body with genetic therapies so normal nowadays in other areas?

I would not finish without spend a line against IOC (International Olympic Committee) that has passed a new method of doping: Politic Doping, it consists of selecting a country like China –a Human Right offender-to organize the Olympic Games because of political and economical influences, no matter of trampling on the Olympic spirit.

In conclusion, we should appreciate those sportsmen who struggle to improve, no merely for a victory but to show us the best values of a human being plain and simple, and send the cheaters off sport for life.

BE CAREFUL WITH THE POST-HOLIDAYS DYSFUNCTION DISORDER” (a report by Elena)

2008-08-30T09:26:00.003+02:00

The post-holidays dysfunction disorder or also called “seasonal affective disorder” is a new entity which is no considered as a real disorder for many of the psychiatric specialists. Most of them affirm, that it is a situation created by the modern lifestyle and transitory when people retake their active life after an indolent period.

On the other hand, there are some defenders of this disorder, as a real condition of persistent mental and emotional stress occuring as a result of beginning at work after a holiday period, mainly when people : did not finish their duties before going on holidays, do not appreciate so much their job or have some objections to other mates. In a few days after coming at work, people can feel tired, be lacked of tolerance to work., sometimes with severe psychological shock. This disorder typically involving disturbance of sleep and constant vivid recall of the experience, with dulled responses to others and to the outside world.

In the words of Vanessa Fernández, a psicologist of the CETAES*, 40 per cent of workers coming to their job after holidays suffer from this dysfunction. Furthermore, she assures that there is no many differences between men and women but she remarks than woman is more vulnerable because of their easier expression of feelings than man. She adds that people affected by this disorder are not satisfied by their job or the ambience in it.

According to a recent survey conducted by “Alta Gestión” -an human resources company- all over the country (Spain) and published by “La Verdad” on the 26th of August, 49 per cent of active people manifest some distress after starting at work after the holidays period, simultaneously 51 per cent do not display any disruption in their behavior at work. Additionally, the figures reveal that this syndrome clearly matters 51 per cent of female against to 48 per cent of male and it was found ,with respecting to age, that his disorder is become less in intensity when people is 50 years-old or more.

On balance, the data are clear, the post-holidays dysfunction disorder occurs and affects men and women in a similar rate . Companies have to take notes and try to prevent the negative consequences for their economies (absences from work, neglected duties,…). For the future, they should prevent this situation and make the return to job from holidays no so traumatically for their employees. The beneficial effects on the economy will be clearly evidenced.

*(Centro de Tratamiento de la Ansiedad y el Estrés)

Letter to the editor (By Mati Bolaños)

2008-08-28T08:09:00.002+02:00

Sir, I got very improsionated when I read an article about how children use computers (‘Links between children and computers’, August 22). A deep investigation seemed to be caried out in order to write the article, however, I would affirm some cifres are far from being real, or unless, do not represent children from different social classes.
This article marks that the fact that children have their own computer in their bedrooms is one of the reasons why children become addictive to them. However, as a middle-class house-wife, mother of twins (12 yeras-old) I can see them quarrel over the computer almost everyday. We only have a computer in the livingroom, and in spite of that fact, I can assure my children are becoming addictive. Parents allowing their children using the computer whenever they feel like is another important factor that is pointed out by the article. Nevertheless, the use of the computer is scheduled at home, but, to be honest, I must confess that they always want to keep on using the computer more time than stablished. You can ask them to turn off the computer a hundred time and they will not even hear you.

Anyway, the article states that parents that allow their children to use computers and play computer-games do not know how to bring them up properly. But, I want to add a date: I am living in 2008, and so my children do, and because of that fact, I cannot keep my children away of computers because they are in touch with them in everywhere (specially, at school, where they spend much of their time).
I would like to say that, no matter what experts say, I still want my children to use the computer, since life will be easier for them if they can use a computer decently. Of course, for me, it is more important that they maintain close relationships with their class-mates and friends and to be in contact with nature, but the key factor is that a good use of computers will be required in every job. And, moreover, nowadays many teachers usually find homework and essays in their inbox, it is easier to correct and less heavy to carry on with them.

Technology is here to make our lifes easier and more comfortable. And of course, I would never affirm that parents ought to allow their children to use the computer freely, with not restrictions. On the contrary, parents should stay with their children while the surf on the web or chat with their friends through the internet. In my opinion, parents are not here to ban the use of a particular gadget or to prohibit a children from going to particular place. Parents are here to teach their children how to use that particular gadget and the reason why they should not go to that particular place.

Matilde BolanosLondo, W3

Chirigotas (by Fulgencio)

2008-08-26T14:30:00.002+02:00

Today I would like to write about one of the most funny shows you can watch on the stage: a carnival chirigota (Cadiz style).

A carnival chirigota is a performance composed by a mixture of humour, lyrics, music, disguises and comedy stand up as a way of social critic and entertainment. It is like to explain the world from the point of view of the character that comedian is disguised. Although the word chirigota has a wide meaning, the term is commonly accepted to referred to a famous and very popular Cadiz carnival show.

Technically, a chirigota -Cadiz style- is adapted to a pattern in instruments and kind of themes. Traditionally a group uses one to three guitars, -rhythm and plucking- , kazoos, and, as a percussion instrument, a drum, and a bass drum with cymbal.

Repertoire is made up of a Presentation, several Pasodobles and Cuplés with original music and a Potpourri as the ending part. In Presentation the group uses a popular song to adapt lyrics to introduce why they have chosen a particular disguise and characters, everything in showed in a funny and humorous style. Later, Pasodobles start reflecting and critizing –seriously or with a little bit of humour- certain social or political aspects. After Pasodobles it is the turn for Cuplés, the funniest part of the show, they are compositions with the goal of making laugh. The show ends with the Potpourri changing lyrics of famous songs in order to create an atmosphere of exhilaration in the audience.

Chirigotas spread out of Cadiz too. In Murcia, “La Chirigota de Molina de Segura” offers an opportunity to appreciate this kind of performance no far from your home.

Regardless of comparisons, this group has a long career on a stage, so they have been performing for eight years since their first spectacle in 2002 with the show “Los Hermanos de Dinio” characterized as brother of a tabloid celebrity. After that they appeared with “Los Pole Position” (2003), disguised as racing drivers. A year later they were “Los Missmisimos” ridiculing the catwalk word. In 2004, pretending to be athletes in the Open Ceremony of Olympic Games, played with the name of “Los Que Pasan Olímpicamente”. Subsequent performances were: “Las Que Van a Servir” (tennis women players) in 2006 and “Los Que Se Comen Todas Las Hostias” (first Communion children) in 2007 and last year they were on the stage with the name “Las Que Se Van de Vientre” characterized as belly dancers.

Although my opinion is not neutral, because of being one of the performers, I recommend to watch the show “Vísteme Despacio” during the next season 2008-09,
in the end, fifteen people will have been working for pulling your laugh out.

ABOUT DIANE ARBUS (1923-1971) (By Irene)

2008-08-24T11:22:00.002+02:00

History is plenty of forgiven characters. Especially if we are speaking about women; “The greatest forgiven”. Pratriarcalistic societies which remember, study and grow with a masculine history generate a lack of feminine figures. That is the reason why the eternal feminine absence it taken for granted. The memory of those entire important women passes over the time like little shadows waiting for us.

Only for instance, one of those women is Diane Arbus. She was one of the most important photographers in the XX century. She took with her camera all the social aspects which could pass inadvertent; the hidden part of her contemporary society, even herself. She had an excellent clever view. Transgressor, loner, very intuitive and melancholic. She was always looking for the luid. Her pictures are so vividness that sometimes they overwhelmed you.

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Although that she had a good relationship with her family, she was very collapse with them. She lived in a crystal cage that is the reason why she needed to break the heavy chain which made her miserable. She required a bit of freedom, that kind of freedom which allows everyone be whatever you decided to be. She managed to go to the “Metropolitan”, she used to spend whole hours gazed Greco pictures or reading poetry in Central Park. The more she read, the more she wanted to know. Her nonconformist and high sensitive character made her suffered a lot. Often form depression.

No sooner had she recover from a great depression when she got married with Allan Arbus. Nor the fame, neither the money, could give her a good live, or at least; a live that should worth to live. At first they get on well but with the years Diana started to get involve in troubles. She had problems with drugs, alcohol and with the law.

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Like Virginia Woolf, Diana committed suicide. Any letter was written explaining the matter of her suicide. Only a line in her diary: “The last dinner”.

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My favourite photography of her is “Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park”. It scared me and is very overwhelmed. Others like “kid in black face with friend”, “Woman and her son”… and much more.

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I highly encourage you to take a look to her work you won’t be disappointed. (If you get disappointed at least you have been in touch with a woman work, something that doesn’t happen every day.)

TERUEL IS ALIVE! (by Elena )

2008-08-22T12:40:00.003+02:00

REPORT ON TRAVEL. ( informal style).

When I was working as an official veterinarian in Cantavieja -Maestrazgo de Teruel-, situated on the north-east of the province, I learnt to love this territory for its spectactular views of mountain scenery and being an sparsely inhabited area. I was living there from 1997 until 1998. After that, I have regularly visited the region. This year, I already was there for 3 days in february with my family, skiing in Valdelinares -well, I wanted to say learning skiing-.

Last month, we decided to go to Albarracin (Teruel), on the south-west, for our summer holidays because my husband had not enough free days –the companies rules- and we wanted to visit this area long ago. We decided to complement the trip with a visit to some friends in Madrid and of course, we had to drop in the Warner Bros Park with the children -they would be happier for the next travelling events: museums, ruins, sights,…- and all of us –parents also- had a sensational day.

After leaving Madrid, we decided to go to Albarracín passing through the area called “Alto Tajo”. This took us all the day but it was such an impeccable place that people should visit at least once. The road accompained the river meandered gently, and we could delight with stunning views over the mountains. We could have a bath in a placid meander of the river and looked a deer which was grazing in a field, peacefully. We arrived to Albarracín watching an interminably blue and gold sunset.

In Albarracin, we were seightseeing all the day. In the morning, we went to visit the municipal museum and the castle –now in rebuilding-, which was built by the Moors during their occupation of Spain, also we went into the Cathedral and its museum. Before lunch, we strolled around the town. After having a nap, we decided to see the antique pictures –from stone age- painted by our prehistoric ancestors. Several nature paths, that we had to do by foot, took us to different places where we were hardly able to distinguish between the stone and the paint.

I would rather recommend your visit to Teruel. “Teruel exists”, it is claimed by their habitants. I will come back as usual because I have become fond of Teruel.

ARE THE CONSUMERS OF DOPING SUBSTANCES TAKING A RISK? (by Mati Bolaños)

2008-08-17T14:07:00.002+02:00

At first sight, doping is an efective and external way of improving an athlete’s performance. Particular substances provoque better results in a competition when consumed, but are the consumers of doping substances taking a risk?

First of all, the ingestion of doping substances is conflicting the original idea of the Internacional Olympic Comittee, founded in 1894 in order to promote ethic and pedagogical values in sportsmen and sportswomen. The aim was clear: stimulating the practise of sports and maintaining close links between the different countries.

In 1866, people could see how a cyclist, Linton, from Wales, died during a competition in France due to a overdose of cafeine. In the 50’s the use of dooping substances increased suddenly. And that’s why, timidly, federations started to make anti-doping tests in the 60’s. Sportmen must be concious that the benefits of doping substances do not exceed their negative effects.

Anabolic asteroids ar the most famous substances use in this field. Men create them naturally, since they make the difference between a man and a women during the teen’s. In fact, the anabolic asteroids are used in some fertility treatments. But there are secondary dangerous effects:

In women, they have virilizations and hirsutism effects, change of voice, and menstraul disorders.
In teenagers, they interrupt the growth of bones (this is the main reason why most gymnasts-girls, specially from the former URSS, are so short).
In men, they increase the size of the prostate, cause libido alterions and change the consumer into an agressive man. And, in a long term, anabolic asteroids may force the male body to create female glands and provoque the growth of breasts.
In general, other well-known are high blood pressure (hypertension), heart attacks, hemorrgafe cerebral or sudden death. Moreover, injures in the liver are huge most times.

Anyway, most times, when proffesional sportmen take doping substances, they are more or less concious of what they are doing. However, there are lots of amateurs training in gyms that are exposed to these substances. As one of them (I actually am a Spinning Instructor) I can assure that, in gyms, there are magazines that mainly offer different substances to increase the size of the muscle and guides about the use of them. Once, I stopped to read one of them out of curiosity, and, when I wanted to read about the secondary effects, the explanations were vage and imprecise. In fact, it is extremely easy to get these ‘magical’ pills, most gyms offer them, and most times the gym-owners do not even advise about the using of them. Actually, I have met some gym-owners that are staunch consumers of doping substances. Fortunately, just some of them are!

As a conclussion of this essay, I just want to pint out all the records-breaking sportmen and sportwomen that are nowadays in Beijing (just like Michael Phelps, Federica Pellegrini or Isinbayeva). We can all turn on television and watch how a new world-record is broken everyday! I feel specially delighted, but not for the record itself, but because it has been broken without the use of doping substances.

Musac (by Irene)

2008-08-15T20:05:00.000+02:00

Historically the controversial about Art have been one of the most questionable questions, philosophically and aesthetic speaking. The meaning, the definition or the use of Art have been the most commune answer to the eternal question “what is art?”
We are far away of the Expressionism, Classicism, and Barrow. But as I see it, it does not means that everything showed in a museum is Art.

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Last week I was in León, I visited the Musac, a new age building used to display photography, sculpture and pictures. Although it seems very modern, except some photography I really don’t enjoy with anything. For instance, there was a carpet with some books, the books have been choosing by the author because they were very important for him in his life.
I was so angry when I was it… I mean, I think the author was joking with me, with us, Art is that? If it is so, I find that every of us can be an artist, so came on, put all your books on a carpet and be famous.

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It is stupid, isn’t it?
I really don’t understand why it was there, art for me is something different. I don’t have a clear idea and probably I am not able to explain my own art view. Although it doesn´t mean that I can’t discern what it can’t be art for me.
A grate philosopher called Gadamer speaks about the art dead. He insisted on the fact that, only when the art dead, Art is recognised like Art. So Art needs to dead to be consider like Art. History would be our better guide to appreciated Art because with an historical and temporal view we would be able to appreciate it. It could means that, we are not appreciating the new age art and maybe once we died, the new generations will be able to appreciated it. I highly don’t trust on it. A carpet with books can’t be art.

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But like everything, any of us have their own view, so maybe if you had watched it, you would have enjoyed. Art can be only the way of see something. A way of see cultural and historically defined. Despite of the heterogeneous taste of everyone I find quite difficult to understand this kind of art. Almost impossible.

.
Last February in Arco, a little draw made by children in a kinder garden was buy for hundreds of Euros. So, it can be Art to?
Maybe all of us are artist and I really don’t see it before. So create and take out the sleepy artist you have inside.

About sport, health and other bullshits (by Ful)

2008-08-13T09:00:00.004+02:00

All these Olympic days we can hear everywhere how sport helps to reach values and be healthy. Respect to health, it is a common place to consider sport as the best way to increase life quality and life quantity. In my opinion, sport is just a single word to describe a complex human activity. So, if I had to answer the question of sport as a source of health, after sixteen years being a high performance trainer in athletics, I would say: maybe.

First of all, we should classified what kind of activities exist inside the word ‘sport’ in order to analyze whether it is a health practice or not, so I divide sport in four activities:

1) Fitness
2) Formative
3) Competitive
4) Professional

Fitness
It is all kind of exercises to prevent illness, reduce daily stress and to obtain an improvement in mental health. Subjects who practice Fitness have to practice at least 3 days a week, more than 45 min. each session in aerobic way, that is, less than 160 heart rate per minute, avoiding high impact exercises in order to prevent injuries in muscles, bones and joints.

Formative
I mean physical activity, especially in children, aimed to learn how human body works, sport skills for a better carrying out of merely for not to be injured and as a way of social values promoting.

Competitive
Amateur competition, usually training 3-4 days a week directed toward competition once a week or a month. It needs an important work to get the goal: the victory. Since amateur, it is a hobby, no reason to exceed own limits.

Professional
It is a high performance sport, a profession, a way of showing the art of movement. The objective one: to be the best (without tricks, of course). The rest of aspects are behind main goal, to be the number one. It is not healthy at all, neither unhealthy, this is a profession, and none of us go to work thinking in improving healthy, don´t we? An artist look for art masterpiece and so an athlete does, as a singer, a dancer, a painter,etc. They ‘invest’ 4, 5, 6 hours a day to get the ‘profit’ of victory.

Regardless of whether we like or not, professional sportsmen protect their selves with the appropriate equipment and medical check-ups, care their careers to extend their sport lives. But, what about three previous categories? What about the so-named “healthy sport” in opposition to professional sport?

In a normal day we can find hazardous situations as people starving on diet, children trained as adults, amateur runners running distances they are not adapted to go, women walking in high heels, youngster in first contact with drugs trying to get a bigger muscles, friends playing tennis at 14:00 hours in summer, parents forcing sons to be succeeded sportsmen, amateurs working in a gym for hours without any objective but to get some muscle, young girls mistreating their bodies to fit a size less bikini, and so on. Thousands of examples of health risks in no professional sports.

In conclusion, sport is healthy or not depending on what kind of sport you want to practice and to follow their rules in order to not trespassing limits a person has. First what do you want to do, later to practice, in this order.

Regarding professional sport nobody should find health or illness in it, it is a job, like yours. Should Picasso have stopped to paint because inks and oil paintings were a threat to his lungs? Is sport a risk of health? Maybe, specially no professional sport.

“TYPHOON” NADAL ATTACKS AGAIN! (by Elena)

2008-08-11T01:13:00.002+02:00

Rafael Nadal, a bright young tennis player who has much to win, to be the number one in the world….” “ … he is an example of hard-working and fair play” has said his manager, Tony Nadal…”

The starting pistol has given the signal for the beginning of the Olympics. Olympic Spanish team are already in Beijing (China). The expectations are many: Spain has just become the 2008 Football European Championship, Sastre is the new winner in the Tour of France, and of course, the best Spanish tennis player in the last years, Rafael Nadal, has just become the Wimbledon hero.

Rafael Nadal, was born in 1986 in Manacor, Spain . He has been playing tennis since he was 4 . He has won his first competition at the age of 8 in Mallorca (Spain). In 2002, he has become the youngest player in the world in winning a game in a TPA tournament -he was only 15 years old-. In 2003, he started to play in a Grand Slam Competition. But ,it is in 2005 , when he has come into one’s kingdom . He has won his first Roland Garros.

In this hopeful manner, he has begun his magnificent career. Four consecutive times champion in Roland Garros, twice runner-up in 2006/ 2007 in Wimbledon and at last, winner in Wimbledon in 2008, and the most important score, he has won twelve Masters Series competitions. In the tennis history, Nadal is one of the fantastic-four-players, who has achieved ten victories in these tournament, next to Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, and Andre Agassi. On 18th of August he will appear in the first position in the TPA list after being the number two for 160 consecutive weeks.

Admired and loved by millions of people, wherever he goes, a maximum expectation is generated. His tennis way is based in the constancy, not to fear his rivals, and not to give any point for lost before the ending comes. But he feels a kind of fascination about Roger Federer : “ It is easier the Roland Garros was won by Federer than Wimbledon was won by me” has said Nadal in Wimbledon, this year.“I am looking forward to hearing from the success of all our olympic players in Beijing”, has said a friend of mine, but honestly I would prefer to read in a newspaper : “Rafa Nadal has conquered the gold medal in the Olympic Games”. My best whishes. Good luck, Rafa!

(Article for a newspaper, recommendations: attractive headline, including quotes, formal or informal language, background in past perfect or past continuous, and use of passive)

Plastic or not plastic that is the question (by Irene)

2008-08-05T00:28:00.002+02:00

When I was a child my grandmother used to take me to the baker’s to buy some bread every morning. She always used the same bag. It was not a plastic bag it was a cloth bag, she reuse it every morning. Thousands of people like my grandmother used to do that but with the new culture of “use and throw it” a huge problem have to be face up to. Plastic bags are an unquestionable problem for the environment.

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Countries like Israel, Canada, Kenya, Taiwan, Bangladesh and China have banned the use of plastic bags. Ireland put a tax over the price of plastic bags and the use of them have decreased a 90 %. It is a bit sad the only thing than seems to change our habit is money. So it doesn’t mind to have an environmental thought, pocket rules!!

.
It is estimate that a person consume of plastic bags is six a week, twenty four every month, more or less two hundred and eighty eight a year. To sum up every one in our live might use 22,176 plastic bags. What can we do? Because recycling them is not the answer, for the reason that is cheaper make a new one than recycling it. Only a 1% of every plastic bag is recycled. If they are not been recycled, where they go? The answer is to every where. Because the wind sometimes shuffle them, the worst place they go is the sea. And unfortunately is what more often happen. Once in the sea they are eaten by tortoises, dolphins, seals and whales. Sometimes these animals eat them because they seem to be jellyfish. At the same time hundreds of birth dead due to the plastic bag become for them in a snare.

.
I am only mentioning environmental points; we don’t have to forget that plastic bags are made by oil. A country like China would save 37,000 $ only in one year not using plastic bags.

.
So came on! Let´ s use cloth bags, we can recycle them, because every day we will be able to reuse them. Recycling is the way but if we already know that it is only a dream (have you seen the program CQC about Murcia??) make something to change that. Tomorrow go to buy to the baker’s with a cloth bag. ^ ^ . it isn´t go green, it is go responsible about a real fact.

The shower (By Fulgencio Serrano)

2008-08-03T12:05:00.003+02:00

Traslated from my book "Diario de un pesimista con buen humor"

The shower consists of five phases: faucet opening, checking temperature in your back, soaping oneself, shouting for somebody to switch butane bottle on again, drying with a “Credijoven de Cajamurcia” advertising towel and it ends fifteen seconds before warm water starts to pour. It is annoying, isn’t it? You experiencing a temperature colder than to attend Walt Disney's burial ceremony and the bloody water starts to spread when you do not already need it at all.
And it would be even worse if going to brush your teeth you felt in your pretty mouth the warm water waiting for you inside faucet, to burn it, indeed.

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I wouldn’t like lie you, I am not keen on having a shower, I do it because everybody does it, although if you realize it, something unforeseen happens when you are dripping; in fact, the doorbell, it always rings when you are quite naked forcing you to get dressed with the first thing you pick up in your way to the door: a towel around the waist, a jacket and a mountain boots worn as flip-flops, that it seems you are walking on Cibeles Catwalk stumbling across the corridor with shoelaces untied and wet hair woolly bear style.

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When you return and try to resume the shower, scarcely ten seconds after you feel a strong desire of urinating therein, then you leave toward toilettes (yes, yes, of course dear dudes, it is true necessary to go out, do not be filthy thinking that nobody can see you) and, of course, trickling on the floor marking your path as Tom Thumb (Pulgarcito) but in water pools, so your couple sees you and says: -What a disgust! -Look at the floor; you should have pissed inside the shower tube, such a pig!

.
About the creams, I merely want to say here a thing that assaults my mind occasionally: why do the bottles of shampoo and gel always fall down and can not stay upright? Whichever you catch always falls the nearby one, when not the rest ones, as a bowling alley, only the bottle of nature salts keeps vertical, which falls as soon as you have put back all the bottles in their original places again. By the way, anybody knows what the utility of nature salts is? It is this kind of things Santa Claus brings you every year because someone has supposed you would like and you have to bear the humiliation because if you comment a simple word against then will give you a Micky Mouse perfume burner or perhaps, something worst. As in tobacco boxes, it would be recommendable to put a banner up in the bath door: “Shower can affect to your psychic health”

BOOK REVIEW (by Fca. Elena Torrecillas Lozano)

2008-08-01T01:20:00.007+02:00

Tittle: Psiquiatras, psicólogos y otros enfermos

Author: Rodrigo Muñoz Avia

Category: Narrative

---

If you want to be in absolute hysterics you will read this novel. I’ve just finished to read it and I can’t stop laughing when I remember some amazed situations happened in the book. I bought this book three months ago recommended by a friend. I wanted the novel was a present to someone on St George’s Day, but at last I decided to give another book. It was the best idea I took for so long.

The book is about Rodrigo Montalvo, a thirty-seven years old man, got married to Patricia, has got two children, a boy and a girl (seven and nine years old) and has a cat, which look like as a dog because barking. His familly -the cat included- love him so much. He is a happy man. At least ,he has been feeling like that. One day , after the visit of his brother in law –a psychiatrist-,he hesitates about the fact of his hapiness . He wants to know the truth about himself and starts to visit more and more psychologists, psychiatrists, hypnotherapists. They take his money without adding any sensible answer.

The novel is a compelling tale with evocative scenes. There are some very funny moments. The part where the hero is speaking on the phone with an argentinian psychiatrist is memorable. The plot will engage you. You can’t put down. In spite of some unconvincing parts, incredible in the real life, the ending is absolutely amazing and unexpected . In conclusion, I would rather recommend to read this book.

BABY DIES AFTER BEING LEFT IN CAR (by María Jesús Abellán)

2008-07-30T17:51:00.003+02:00

“A 3-years old boy died in Sevilla while he slept in his car seat in his father’ car while he was working in a Secondary School or having a meeting”.

“A 2-years old baby died in France after being abandoned by his father inside his car parked at the centre of the city Pont de Chéruy.

Unfortunately, we have been witnesses of the above headlines on two occasions during last week. But these are not the only cases that have happened during recent months. This kind of events are happening every day all over the world and I can not understand how is possible to forget a baby in the car, your own baby!. You can forget your mobile, the glasses, the shopping, the bag, some documents, but a baby!. Not only it is a human, but also is it someone who is on your own flesh and blood. Someone that is in your mind the whole day because you can not avoid thinking on them. Although I have tried to find some reasonable explanation to justify those events, I still have not found it. I supposed they really forgot the children were inside the car because it would be a very irresponsible and horrible action from a parent to leave the baby, being conscious of it. But surely there a many cases of children left in the car while parents are doing something important or not.

From personal experience I would say that to be parents means a lot of responsibility, that sometimes it is not easy to assume. You think you will not be able to do it, but when the baby comes you realize that it will not be so difficult. Despite of the feeling of insecurity, you start playing this important role, commiting a lot of mistakes, but learning of them. Finally they become in the reason of your life.

Nowadays the pace of this modern life forces ourselves to be very busy us not to stop not even to think. In our day, we have perhaps become so used to seeing tragedy that we are not aware of the meaning of the word. However when the tragedy involves loss of children’s life I am convinced we are more sensitive, at least I am. And you?

Agressivness (by Mati Bolaños)

2008-07-28T08:38:00.002+02:00

Agressivness. Are we bringing up future criminals? Why do children and teenagers commit crimes? A terrible problem that must be focused soon.

From time to time, we watch awfull crimes committed by children on television. We all remember those two English boys (10 and 12 years old) that raped and murdered a 2-year-old baby. Why did they do it? What is the reason of their behaviour? Another horrofying example took place in Finald some years ago: a 6-year-old boy took his father’s gun and shot at her female partner during a class. Why? They had an argued the day before. Is he guilty? I would never affirm that. He just did what he used to see at home. And, finally, I cannot avoid mentioning José Rabadán, from Murcia, who killed his parents and little sister when he was 16.

Unfortunately, there are not lots of polls or research about this topis. But amizingly, only a 48% of these “criminals” suffer some kind of personality disorder. Then, what happened to the rest of them?
Latest research point out one huge problem: some parents do not know how to bring up their children.
All the babies have a tendency to hit when they want to get something. However, most parents correct this habit, and as a result of it, children learn that Hitting or kicking is not the best way to reach an aim. The problem arrives when parents allow their children use violence to satisfy their wishes.

In Spain, the legislation about the criminal responsability of under-18s was enforced in 2001. This law states that under-14s will never be responsable of their acts and, moreover, describes a wide range of punishments for those teenagers (from 14 to 18) that have committed crimes.
Since 2001, this law has been developped a lot. The evolution has reached a point in which the original law does not have anything to do with the current one. The original law have attach importance to education and courses to provide a proper future for under-18s. One the contrary, nowadays, detention centres and punishments take precedence over education. Nevertheless, There has never been a adequate budget to invest on this centres.

This is an extremely polemic subject, but whatever your opinion is, you must never forget that, when lights are out during the night, the only noise you can hear is a boy crying.
And, before finishing, I want you to think about these young men future. In most cases, when they leave the detention centre, their attitude is worst that before since their mind have been contaminated by other dangeroues partners.

SCHEDULE

2008-07-25T01:01:00.002+02:00

Press image to enlarge

WRITING WORKSHOP STARTS!!!!!

2008-07-24T09:55:00.004+02:00

Next 28th we start to publish our writings here every 2 days. Term to participate is always open. If you want to join us, just enroll your name in our list. (See the rules in forum).

Thank you Mati, Irene, María Jesús and Elena to help me in the project.

Fulgencio

"SEPTEMBER, WE PRESUME" is coming...

2008-06-26T01:21:00.004+02:00

I would like to know how many people could contribute in a WRITING WORKSHOP on-line, using this blog or another one.

Every contributor has to post an article at least once every two weeks -we will schedule the turns- and the rest of the group MUST comment them or add ideas to improve each post.

As many people we are, more improvement we´ll acquire. The secret of passing the writing is PRACTICE, PRACTICE AND MORE PRACTICE, or else, we won´t pass, no mistery.

We can organize different workshops in reading, oral practice or listening, but first of all it has to exist a previous interest.

To success we need time in advance, it is useless to start at the final of summer.

No matter that you sign us or not but if you do, you have to be disciplined because we are working in a team.

Anyway, good summer

"SEPTEMBER. YES, WE CAN"

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH?

2008-06-16T00:46:00.007+02:00

A philosophy student was asked this single question on his final exam: “What is courage”?
The student wrote: “This.” Then signed the paper and handed it in.

And the moment of truth is here…

Well, in fact it’s not. There is no moment of truth as such –who invented that nonsense anyway?-. What you know you know, and –the real point of foreign language exams- what you can do, you can do. No much difference between today and a week ago. (But possibly some kind of a difference between today and 9 months ago?)

So don’t get too stressed tonight/this morning! The only truth is that you are all different, your brains are different, and so are your circumstances. Throughout this year you will have improved your command of English at an entirely different pace and up to an entirely different degree, each and every one of you. For some the improvement will be enough to obtain that famous certificate and for some it won’t. Well… the certificate won’t make a great difference in your life, the learning behind possibly will. So take the learning.

All I know is…
…that you worked your damn arses off this year!
I know. I saw it. Don’t think I didn’t appreciate it. My congratulations to ALL of you, because what you achieved you achieved BEFORE this exam.

WEBMASTER FAREWELL SPEECH by Ful

2008-05-30T02:10:00.004+02:00

(Excuse me Agata for hacking your space with my speech)

Your Majesty Agata, Your Royal Highness Agata´s assistants, Mr. Student Representative of Mo-wed group, Forum Instigator Juan Alberto, Dear classmates, fellow citizens and Poor student of Agata first level, who answered the reading exam questions without reading the text because nobody told him that it was important.(lol,sorry)

First of all, I have to thank everybody because you chose me as your representative.

Student representatives use to be the cleverest people in the class, with my election it was about the time to break this absurd rule.

In my multiple condition of Student Representative, Unit Crisis responsible, Blog webmaster I do declare I have spent many pleasant moments together trying to convert a common class in a speaker community of English supporters, trying to enjoy in our way to learning more than to expect a degree at the end of the year.

Many of you have transmitted how difficult 5th level was, I agree with you and I apologize for not to have pressed enough to change our 5 levels in the necessary 20 levels in order to learn English perfectly.

To know a language is something extraordinary, specially when they are called English or Spanish, the most used in the world , besides of Chinese. That is not something you need for your job, flirting with Swede people in the beach or whatever. A language means a new window where more knowledge can come in.

I want to thank Agata on behalf of each and everyone of us since to keep a timetable is done just for a salary but to encourage classmates and transmit the interest in learning as she has done cannot be paid with money but with a sincere THANK YOU.

I would like to thank Agata for having passed my project of making a web, I am sure not all teachers had accepted the idea. I am very proud of the blog and all the time I have dedicated to it since the web has given back: help, entertainment, information and a cohesion group, or rather, cohesion groups owing to important union tool between both Agata´s groups.

Eventually, I beg pardon in case everybody is upset on account of my painful humour sense, if so it was not my desire, a dog cannot refuse to be a dog, a cat to be a cat and in my case a clown cannot avoid to be a clown

Everything can always be done better, but believe me I did the best I was able to do and it was worth.

Good luck!

Note: I would like to dedicate you my favourite karaoke song:

BELIEVE ME!

2008-05-28T12:47:00.002+02:00

(DEDICATED TO ALL OF YOU 5TH YEAR STUDENTS )

Learning a language
is like doing a jigsaw puzzle
of a million pieces
with a picture that keeps changing.
It's like getting lost in a foreign city
without a map.
It's like playing tennis without a ball,
like being an ant in a field of grasshoppers.
It's being an acrobat with a broken leg,
an actor without a script,
a carpenter without a saw,
a storyteller without a middle or an end.

But then gradually
it's like being out in the early morning
with the mists lifting.
It's like a chink of light under a door,
like finding the glove you were looking for,
catching the train you thought you were going to miss,
getting an unlooked-for present,
exchanging a smile.

And then one day it's like riding a bicycle
very fast downhill.

Olivia McMahon

It may not be the best of poems but it says a number of true things...
The bold type at the end is mine.
Good luck!!!

WHAT NEXT???

2008-05-14T00:43:00.002+02:00

Homeless holidays

For those seeking a really thrifty break, one option is to spend the cash on a three-day "street retreat", accommodation most definitely not included.

This summer the first such break took place in London, the "holidaymakers" sleeping rough on the streets of the capital to see what it means to be homeless - and to grow spiritually in the process.
Packing for the retreats, organised by the Peacemaker Circle International Community, is easy. Participants are told not to wash or shave for five days beforehand and not to bring a change of clothes. All they need is a sense of adventure, a willingness to beg and the ability to deal with "scary stuff".

comebackalive.com

STORIES OF HOMELESS PEOPLE

2008-05-14T00:30:00.001+02:00

3 stories of homeless people:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nohome/homeless/

INTERESTED IN THE EUROPEAN JOB MARKET?

2008-05-10T21:16:00.005+02:00

What is EUROPASS?
The EUROPASS is a system that was introduced as a means of standardising the format for recording skills/qualifications and experience so that they are understood in Europe and candidate countries. It was officially launched 31st January 2005 in Luxembourg.
The Europass CV replaces the European CV, which was introduced in 2002.

Why is Europass necessary
Whether you are planning to enrol in an education or training programme, looking for a job, or getting experience abroad, it is important to be able to make your skills and competences clearly understood.

Europass is a new way of helping people to make their skills and qualifications clearly and easily understood in Europe (European Union, EFTA/EEA and candidate countries), and and to move anywhere in Europe.

Europass consists of five documents:

two documents (Europass curriculum vitae (CV) and Europass Language Passport) that you can fill in yourself .
three other documents (Europass Certificate Supplement, Europass Diploma Supplement and Europass Mobility) filled in and issued by competent organisations.

Europass has been established by the Decision No 2241/2004/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 15 December 2004 on a single transparency framework for qualifications and competences.

More information: http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/europass/preview.action?locale_id=1

Examples of completed CVs in different languages: http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/europass/home/hornav/Downloads/EuropassCV/CVExamples/navigate.action

(NOTE: CEDFOP= European Centre for the development of vocational education and training)

WELL, WELL...

2008-05-08T11:58:00.002+02:00

Cannabis reclassified again!
A new U-turn performed by the UK government...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7387173.stm

DOPE ON DEMAND

2008-05-07T00:01:00.001+02:00

Marijuana vending machines in US

Eleven US states allow medical marijuana on doctors' orders

Vending machines distributing the drug marijuana are to begin operating in the US state of California.

The machines can only be used by people who have been prescribed the drug for health reasons. Patients will have to provide a prescription, and be fingerprinted and photographed before being allowed to use the facilities. Eleven US states allow the medicinal use of marijuana, primarily for pain relief, but it remains controversial.
Vince Mehdizadeh, owner of the Herbal Nutrition Centre in Los Angeles, where one of the two first machines is based, said it would allow patients to buy extra supplies whenever needed.

Once the users have been photographed, fingerprinted and have shown their prescription, they will be issued with a card which can be used in the machines, he told KWTX News 10 in the US. "They'll be greeted by a security guard right there. They'll slide the card in and they'll fingerprint in to verify that it's them," he was quoted by KWTX News 10 as saying. "A camera takes a picture of them, verifying that they're actually at the machine. And they get the medicine and they move on."

The operators think that vending machines issuing prescription drugs could become a common sight in the US. Proponents say marijuana is a valuable tool for relieving pain and stimulating appetite in the sick.

However, it remains banned by the 1970 Controlled Substances Act and the US federal government does not currently recognise any legitimate medical use.

LINK TO VIDEO NEWS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7210000/newsid_7214900/7214964.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm&asb=1&news=1&bbcws=1

IN NEED OF REVISION?

2008-05-06T23:00:00.000+02:00

Drug classification in the UK

In the UK, illegal drugs are classified into three main categories. They can be Class A, B or C, with A attracting the most serious punishments and fines.

Class A

Drugs such as heroin, methadone, cocaine, crack and Ecstasy, LSD and amphetamines (speed) if prepared for injection fall into Class A.
Conviction for possession, in a Crown Court, can lead to a maximum seven year prison sentence and a fine.
The maximum penalty for trafficking is life imprisonment plus a fine.

Class B

Class B drugs include amphetamines (speed), and barbiturates.
The maximum penalty for possession of a Class B drug, if the case reaches Crown Court, is five years, plus a fine.
For trafficking, the sentence can be up to 14 years, plus a fine.

Class C

Class C, the lowest class of drugs, includes mild amphetamines (such as slimming tablets) and Anabolic Steroids.
Benzodiazepine drugs such as Valium are also categorised as Class C drugs.
Maximum sentences are two years for possession and five years for trafficking.

Under the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971), it is an offence:
to unlawfully possess a controlled drug
to possess a controlled drug with intent to supply it
to unlawfully supply (sell/give/share) a controlled drug
to allow premises you occupy or manage to be used for the smoking or use of drugs

For more details on this and more recent legislation, check http://drugs.homeoffice.gov.uk/drugs-laws/

NOBODY'S PERFECT!

2008-05-02T00:50:00.002+02:00

courtroom gaffes

These funny quotes are allegedly real true funny extracts from courtrooms. In each case the questions are from lawyers or barristers; the answers are from witnesses appearing in the witness box. The quotes are funny in themselves, but also illustrate the importance of good communicating, listening and understanding skills.

Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
--------------------------------------------
Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year old, how old is he?
------------------------------------------
Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?
-----------------------------------------
Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
A: Yes.
Q: And what were you doing at that time?
----------------------------------------
Q: She had three children, right?
A: Yes.
Q: How many were boys?
A: None.
Q: Were there any girls?
-----------------------------------------
Q: How was your first marriage terminated?
A: By death.
Q: And by whose death was it terminated?
-------------------------------------------
Q: Can you describe the individual?
A: He was about medium height and had a beard.
Q: Was this a male, or a female?
------------------------------------------
Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
-------------------------------------------
Q: You say the stairs went out the basement?
A: Yes.
Q: Did they also go up?
---------------------------------------------
Q: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
---------------------------------------------
Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for blood pressure?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No.
Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk, in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practising law somewhere.

THE COURT: Now, as we begin, I must ask you to banish all present information and prejudice from your minds, if you have any.

INTERNATIONAL WORKER'S DAY - THE PRICE

2008-05-02T00:39:00.004+02:00

In most of the industrialised world, the first day of May is celebrated as a day to honour those who labour, and is frequently cause for rallies and demonstrations as well as picnics and parties. Unions are at their most militant and calls for unity and solidarity among the fraternity of labour are at their most vocal. There is a reason why this particular holiday falls on that particular day. May Day, as International Workers' Day, actually commemorates an event that happened in the United States, one of the few industrialised countries in which it is not recognised as a holiday.

The Resolution

In 1884, the following resolution was introduced and accepted at the convention of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada (FOTLU)1:
(It is) Resolved ... that eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from and after May 1, 1886, and that we recommend to labor organizations throughout this district that they so direct their laws so as to conform to this resolution by the time named.
The resolution was adopted unanimously.

Preparation

National or local officials of the three main labour organisations present in the United States at the time, the FOTLU, the Knights of Labor 2 and the International Working People's Association (IWPA)3 began preparing for a general strike to be held on that date. The national office of the Knights of Labor, the most conservative of these three organisations, opposed the strike. Local offices ignored Grand Master Workman Terence Powderly's letter of 13 March, 1886, forbidding members of the Knights to strike. The FOTLU and the IWPA organised aggressively. In particular, Albert Parsons and August Spies spoke to gatherings of working people in Chicago at every opportunity.
Meanwhile, newspapers and industrialists were predicting, and preparing for, violence and bloodshed. Melville E Stone, head of the Chicago Daily News 4, predicted a 'repetition of the Paris Communal riots'. National Guard units made preparations for mobilisation, private investigators increased the number of armed employees on staff and special police were deputised.

Saturday 1 May, 1886

Rallies were held throughout the United States on the scheduled day. The largest was in Chicago, where an estimated 90,000 people participated. There were an estimated 10,000 demonstrators in New York and 11,000 in Detroit. In other cities throughout the United States, smaller gatherings were made unique by the unity of black and white workers marching side by side, a strange sight indeed in 1886!
The newspaper The Chicago Mail 5 ran an editorial that morning, which read, in part,

There are two dangerous ruffians at large in this city. One of them is named Parsons. The other is named Spies.
Mark them for today. Keep them in view. Hold them personally responsible for any trouble that occurs. Make an example of them if trouble does occur.

Along the parade route in Chicago, tens of thousands of working men, along with their wives and children, marched happily. It was a Saturday, normally a working day, but this was a strike and an unusual chance to be with family during daylight hours.
Just off the parade route waited police officers and militia members, armed with rifles and Gatling guns, ready to put down any trouble at any moment.
At the end of the parade route, there were speeches in the languages of the workers of Chicago at that time, including English, German, Polish and Bohemian. Then everybody went home. There was no violence, no bloodshed.

Monday 3 May, 1886

Some 65,000 workers were on strike in Chicago, including employees of the McCormick Harvester Works. About a quarter of a mile (0.16 km) away, August Spies was addressing a group of striking lumber workers at a rally. A group of the lumber workers decided to join the striking McCormick Harvester Works employees in confronting strike-breaking workers at the end of the work day.
At closing time, police officers charged the waiting strikers, with revolvers drawn. It was reported by one witness that, as the strikers retreated, the police 'opened fire into their backs. Boys and men were killed as they ran'. Most sources state that six strikers were killed, although some put the number of fatalities at four. Many more were injured.
Another rally, to be held the following evening at Haymarket Square, was called to protest against police violence.

Tuesday 4 May, 1886

The turnout for the rally at Haymarket Square consisted of some 3000 people, including the then Mayor of Chicago, who wanted to ensure that the rally remained peaceful. There was also a force of 180 police officers mobilised, ready to break up the rally at the first sign of violence.
The first speaker was August Spies, who took the police department to task as murderers. Then Albert Parsons spoke. Near the beginning of his speech, he made it clear that he was not calling on anybody to take any action that night, but was planning on simply stating the facts of the previous day's events. The Mayor made his way out of the crowd and told the police captain that the rally was peaceful and that the mobilised police officers should be put back onto regular duty. After Spies and Parsons had spoken, other, less charismatic, speakers took the platform. It was now about 10 o'clock at night. While Samuel Fielden was speaking, the 180 police officers, with clubs drawn and in military formation, closed in on the remaining participants of the rally. The police captain commanded that the rally 'immediately and peaceably disperse'.
As Fielden was protesting that the rally was peaceful, a bomb exploded in the ranks of the assembled police officers, killing one immediately and wounding 65 others, seven of whom later died of their injuries. The remaining police officers drew their revolvers and fired into the crowd, wounding 200 and killing an unknown number.

Arrests and the Trial

Several witnesses identified Rudolph Schnaubelt as the man who threw the bomb. Schnaubelt was arrested, but was later released without being charged with any crime. There was, and still is, some question as to whether or not Schnaubelt was an agent provocateur hired by either the police department or the industrialists of Chicago.
Within days seven labour leaders were arrested for the murder of Mathias J Degan, the police officer who died at Haymarket Square. Those arrested were August Spies, Samuel Fielden, Michael Schwab, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Louis Lingg and Oscar Neebe. Albert Parsons, who was also indicted, avoided arrest until the first day of the trial, when he walked into the courtroom and announced 'I have come to stand trial, your Honor, with my innocent comrades.' After turning himself in, Parsons said to a friend:

I know what I have done. They will kill me. But I couldn't bear to be at liberty, knowing that my comrades were to suffer for a crime of which they are as innocent as I.

The presiding judge, Joseph E Gary, ruled that a relative of one of the police officers killed was a competent juror. He then ruled that a man who stated outright that he was deeply prejudiced against the defendants was also a competent juror.
At the trial itself, the prosecutors made no attempt to prove that any of the defendants threw the bomb or conspired to throw the bomb. Instead, they set about trying to prove that the bomb was thrown by an unknown person motivated by the ideals held by the defendants. Prosecuting Attorney Julius Grinnel, in his closing remarks, stated that

Law is upon trial. Anarchy is on trial. These men have been selected, picked out by the grand jury and indicted because they were leaders. They are no more guilty than the thousands that follow them. ... Convict these men, make examples of them, hang them and save our institutions, our society.

In his final comments to the court, August Spies said

If you think by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement... if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but there and there, behind you and in front of you, and everywhere, flames blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.
And now these are my ideas. They constitute a part of myself. I cannot divest myself of them, nor would I, if I could. And if you think you can crush out these ideas that are gaining ground more and more every day, if you think you can crush them out by sending us to the gallows... if you would once more have people suffer the penalty of death because they have dared to tell the truth... then I will proudly and defiantly pay the costly price! Call your hangman! Truth crucified in Socrates, in Christ, in Giordano Bruno, in Huss, in Galileo still lives - they and others whose number is legion have preceded us on this path. We are ready to follow!

All of the defendants were convicted. With the sole exception of Oscar Neebe, all of the defendants were sentenced to death. Neebe was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He asked that he also be condemned to death, because he was no more innocent than the other defendants.
Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab petitioned for clemency and had their sentences commuted to life in prison. Louis Lingg avoided hanging by committing suicide. Some reports say that he accomplished his own death by biting a percussion cap. Others say that he exploded a stick of dynamite in his mouth. On 11 November, 1887, the other defendants were hanged.

Aftermath

In 1889, at the Marxist International Socialist Congress in Paris, a resolution was passed calling for a 'great international demonstration' for the eight hour day to take place on 1 May, 1890. On that date, there were May Day demonstrations in the United States and many European countries, as well as in Chile, Peru and Cuba.
In 1891, May Day was celebrated in Russia, Brazil and Ireland. China first celebrated May Day in 1920. In 1927, the holiday had spread to India, where there were demonstrations in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay.
As May Day was becoming a worldwide holiday, with the date having been chosen to commemorate the union fight for the eight-hour work day in the United States, within the United States itself the mainstream labour movement, now represented by the American Federation of Labor, was becoming more conservative. That organisation chose to support the first Monday in September as Labor Day. In 1894, federal legislation designating the September Labor Day holiday was passed and signed into law by the then-United States President, Grover Cleveland.

Epilogue

Seven years after the Haymarket incident, the then-governor of Illinois, John Peter Altgeld, pardoned all of the Haymarket defendants and released those who were still living from prison, knowing that by so doing he was ending his political career.

NOTES
1 This organisation evolved into the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations), currently the largest labour organisation in the United States.
2 This was the oldest and most conservative labour organisation in the United States at the time. The official position of its national leadership was that strikes were wrong. Education would lead to the gradual introduction of workers' co-operatives as the means of production.
3 A radical, anarchist organisation.
4 This newspaper went out of business in 1978.5 This newspaper went out of business before 1900

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A627662

REALLY???

2008-04-28T13:39:00.006+02:00

The world's strangest laws
Alex Wade
Times Online Law Section. August 15, 2007

Did you know it's illegal in France to name a pig Napoleon? Or that in Ohio you're not allowed to get a fish drunk? Alex Wade celebrates the spirit of the silly season with a list of the world's most ridiculous laws

It is illegal for a cab in the City of London to carry rabid dogs or corpses.

It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.

It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside down.

In France, it is forbidden to call a pig Napoleon.

Under the UK’s Tax Avoidance Schemes Regulations 2006, it is illegal not to tell the taxman anything you don’t want him to know, though you don’t have to tell him anything you don’t mind him knowing.

In Alabama, it is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle.

In Ohio, it is against state law to get a fish drunk.

Royal Navy ships that enter the Port of London must provide a barrel of rum to the Constable of the Tower of London.

In the UK, a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants – even, if she so requests, in a policeman’s helmet.

In Lancashire, no person is permitted after being asked to stop by a constable on the seashore to incite a dog to bark.

In Miami, Florida, it is illegal to skateboard in a police station.

In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation.

In England, all men over the age of 14 must carry out two hours of longbow practice a day.

In London, Freemen are allowed to take a flock of sheep across London Bridge without being charged a toll; they are also allowed to drive geese down Cheapside.

In San Salvador, drunk drivers can be punished by death before a firing squad.

In the UK, a man who feels compelled to urinate in public can do so only if he aims for his rear wheel and keeps his right hand on his vehicle.

In Florida, unmarried women who parachute on Sundays can be jailed.

In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon more than six-feet long.

In Chester, Welshmen are banned from entering the city before sunrise and from staying after sunset.

In the city of York, it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow.

In Boulder, Colorado, it is illegal to kill a bird within the city limits and also to “own” a pet – the town’s citizens, legally speaking, are merely “pet minders”.

In Vermont, women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth.

In London, it is illegal to flag down a taxi if you have the plague.

In Bahrain, a male doctor may legally examine a woman’s genitals but is forbidden from looking directly at them during the examination; he may only see their reflection in a mirror.

The head of any dead whale found on the British coast is legally the property of the King; the tail, on the other hand, belongs to the Queen - in case she needs the bones for her corset.

With thanks to: Donald Stewart at Faegre & Benson; John Barnett at Burges Salmon; Robert Crossley at Walker Morris; James Odds at Matthew Arnold & Baldwin; and Dan Kieran, author of I Fought The Law (Bantam Press).

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article2251280.ece

IMMIGRATION, DISCRIMINATION... RACE.

2008-04-28T13:27:00.003+02:00

Obama’s Speech on Race
Interactive video and transcript of Senator Barack Obama’s speech in Philadelphia on March 18.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/03/18/us/politics/20080318_OBAMA_GRAPHIC.html#

MELTING POT OR A BOWL OF MIXED SALAD?

2008-04-28T13:00:00.000+02:00

Bites of life
The history professor and food specialist Panikos Panayi tells Harriet Swain that dishes don't have a specific nationality Interview by Harriet Swain

Soon after starting research for his book on the multicultural history of food, Panikos Panayi found his name on a rightwing website, under the heading "Know your enemy". A serious, slightly diffident professor of European history at De Montfort University, he had committed a supposedly hostile act by raising the possibility that fish and chips may not be entirely British. Frying was a typically Jewish way of eating fish, he had suggested, while chips were probably pre-dated by French pommes frites. The idea proved so controversial that it prompted newspaper headlines. Some interpreted the attempt to deconstruct a British national dish as akin to attacking the nation itself.

It was a clear demonstration of how intimately connected people perceive food and national identity to be. But according to Panayi, this perception is wrong. He argues that dishes don't have a nationality. Examine any one of them closely and you are likely to find influences from all over the world, not only in the ingredients but in the way they are served and eaten. Rather than being a symbol of nationality, he says, "what people eat is a really important symbol of the integration and assimilation process". In his view, it is impossible to understand what British food, and especially eating out in Britain, is about without also studying immigration.

Taken from: The Guardian, Tuesday April 15, 2008

THE DOOR TO AMERICA...

2008-04-24T00:36:00.003+02:00

Coming to America: Ellis Island and New York City

by Vincent CannatoProfessor of History, University of Massachusetts

New York City is a kind of archipelago, a Philippines on the Hudson River. Only one borough – the Bronx – is actually attached to the American mainland. There are some forty islands in the city beyond Manhattan, Staten Island and Long Island. These minor islands are nestled in the bays, rivers, harbor, and other waterways that encase the city. Many of the city’s islands once served important social functions and some still do. As the city grew in population northward up the island of Manhattan, along with it came the pesky social problems that tend to afflict any budding metropolis. Under such circumstances, these islands became “cordon sanitaires” in the words of writer Phillip Lopate, “where the criminal, the insane, the syphilitic, the tubercular, the orphaned, the destitute . . . were quarantined.”

The most famous of these small islands is Ellis Island, originally little more than a three-acre bank of sand and mud that barely kept its head above high tide. By 1891, it would become the site of the federal government’s new immigration inspection station. Immigration inspection had become recently federalized, taking the power away from state governments.Americans had recently become concerned with the “quality” of immigrants arriving in the country. This coincided with a dramatic shift in immigration away from Northern and Western Europeans toward Southern and Eastern Europeans. “Lunatics and Idiots Shipped from Europe” and “The World’s Dumping Ground,” screamed newspaper headlines.

The 1891 Immigration Act would set the course of American immigration policy for the next thirty years. It expanded the types of “undesirable” immigrants, so that Ellis Island officials would be on the lookout for “idiots, insane persons, paupers or persons likely to become public charges, persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous disease, persons who have been convicted of a felony or other infamous crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, polygamists. . .” In the coming decades, the list would grow longer.The system of immigration inspection and regulation at Ellis Island was designed to provide the nation with a “proper sieve” that would separate “desirable” from “undesirable” immigrants. This was a bit of a compromise, a middle ground position between those who upheld the laissez-faire notion that the country should be open to all immigrants (at least white European ones) and those who argued for tighter restrictions.The sifting process at Ellis Island, improved throughout the years, meant strict scrutiny of new arrivals. Inspectors and doctors were looking for physical problems such as poor eyesight, bad backs, trachoma, or other potentially contagious diseases. Inspectors kept an eye open for suspected prostitutes, anarchists, and those “likely to become a public charge.”

To enforce the nation’s expanding immigration laws, a fairly sophisticated bureaucratic system was created at Ellis Island to interpret and execute those laws.Roughly twenty percent of immigrants passing through Ellis Island were set aside for further inspection, while the rest passed through Ellis Island without incident. Yet overall, only about two percent of immigrants were excluded from entering the country and sent back to Europe. Part of the reason for such a low figure was that steamship companies had an economic incentive not to bring immigrants who might run afoul of immigration laws, since the steamships were forced to pay the costs of returning these rejected migrants back to Europe. In 1905 alone, it was estimated that steamship companies at Bremen had refused to sell tickets to some 8,000 potential Americans.

Ellis Island’s connection with New York City was natural. Some three-quarters of all immigrants to America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century came through the Port of New York, and many of them ended up staying in the city’s crowded tenement districts. Such conditions provided fodder for immigration restrictionists such as Ellis Island Commissioner William Williams. Immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, Williams wrote in one of his annual reports, “have very low standards of living, possess filthy habits, and are of an ignorance which passes belief. Types of the classes referred to representing various alien races and nationalities may be observed in some of the tenement districts of Elizabeth, Orchard, Rivington, and East Houston Streets.”

Yet those same New York neighborhoods also produced numerous immigrant aid associations designed to help immigrants with their transition into their new homeland. In addition, these organizations provided help in challenging restrictive interpretations of the law at Ellis Island, as well as decisions to exclude individual immigrants.

One New Yorker best embodied the conflicting attitude toward immigrants: the patrician Theodore Roosevelt. Early in his public career, Roosevelt complained about the “evil effects of unrestricted immigration” and supported a literacy test for newcomers. One of his closest friends, Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, was the nation’s leading restrictionist. Yet because of his New York City roots, Roosevelt kept in steady contact with the city’s ethnic and religious leaders, always solicitous of their opinions. As President, Roosevelt’s motto on the subject was: “We can not have too much immigration of the right kind, and we should have none at all of the wrong kind.”

Eventually, the regulation of immigration at stations like Ellis Island gave way to stricter measures. The quotas of the 1920s not only severely restricted immigration both in number, especially for those from Southern and Eastern Europe, but it also moved the primary responsibility for immigration inspection to American consulates abroad. Ellis Island found its role in processing immigrants gradually lessened. Increasingly, it served as a detention center, housing suspected Nazi and fascist sympathizers during World War II and suspected Communists and other radicals awaiting deportation in the early Cold War years.

By 1954, an increasingly irrelevant Ellis Island closed its doors.The decline and abandonment of Ellis Island paralleled the post-war prosperity that led many second and third-generation Americans to shed much of their ethnic baggage as they assimilated into society, rose into the middle class, and moved to the suburbs. Thanks to quota restrictions, immigration was at historic lows. By 1960, only 5.4 percent of Americans were foreign-born. The deterioration and neglect of Ellis Island in the 1960s and 1970s also mirrored the declining fortunes of New York City and other urban centers as the process of suburbanization continued to drain the city of people and resources.

Immigration is once again a hot button issue and New York City has re-emerged as a major immigrant center. Nearly forty percent of city residents are foreign-born. Today’s immigrants do not have an Ellis Island experience, but instead enter the country through airports and across the nation’s land borders. Yet Americans are still confronting issues such as how many immigrants we should receive and what kinds of restrictions, if any, there should be.

Ellis Island still looms in the American imagination. The once-dreary bureaucratic outpost has been transformed into a popular tourist attraction and replaced Plymouth Rock in the American iconography as the site of the nation’s mythic founding. It has been estimated that some forty percent of Americans have at least one ancestor who passed through Ellis Island.

But even the rehabilitation of Ellis Island has not been without controversy. Some worry that the idea of America as a “nation of immigrants,” embodied by the rebirth of Ellis Island and its newfound role as a national shrine, leaves out Americans who did not come to America voluntarily or who were already here before European settlement. Other critics of the “shrinification” of Ellis Island worry that the celebration of Ellis Island and those immigrants who passed through it can end up glorifying older immigrants and unfairly comparing them to newer immigrants.

As America deals with the challenges of our latest wave of mass immigration, it will do so without Ellis Island, the immigrant processing center. But Ellis Island as myth, as a memory place, still has an important hold on the American imagination, and future generations will grapple with both its historical meaning and its relevance to contemporary, multicultural America.

Adapted from http://www.historynow.org/03_2007/historian2.html

THE GREAT POTATO FAMINE

2008-04-18T22:29:00.009+02:00

Ireland is in your hands, in your power. If you do not save her, she cannot save herself. I solemnly call upon you to recollect that I predict with the sincerest conviction that a quarter of her population will perish unless you come to her relief.

Daniel O'Connell to the British House of Commons, 1847.

The Great Hunger

Nicholas Cummins, the magistrate of Cork, visited the hard-hit coastal district of Skibbereen. "I entered some of the hovels," he wrote, "and the scenes which presented themselves were such as no tongue or pen can convey the slightest idea of. In the first, six famished and ghastly skeletons, to all appearances dead, were huddled in a corner on some filthy straw, their sole covering what seemed a ragged horsecloth, their wretched legs hanging about, naked above the knees. I approached with horror, and found by a low moaning they were alive -- they were in fever, four children, a woman and what had once been a man. It is impossible to go through the detail. Suffice it to say, that in a few minutes I was surrounded by at least 200 such phantoms, such frightful spectres as no words can describe, [suffering] either from famine or from fever. Their demoniac yells are still ringing in my ears, and their horrible images are fixed upon my brain."

Coffin Ships
During the Famine period, an estimated half-million Irish were evicted from their cottages. Unscrupulous landlords used two methods to remove their penniless tenants. The first involved applying for a legal judgment against the male head of a family owing back-rent. After the local barrister pronounced judgment, the man would be thrown in jail and his wife and children dumped out on the streets. A 'notice to appear' was usually enough to cause most pauper families to flee and they were handed out by the hundreds. The second method was for the landlord to simply pay to send pauper families overseas to British North America. Landlords would first make phony promises of money, food and clothing, then pack the half-naked people in overcrowded British sailing ships, poorly built and often unseaworthy, that became known as coffin ships.

The first coffin ships headed for Quebec, Canada. The three thousand mile journey, depending on winds and the captain's skill, could take from 40 days to three months. Upon arrival in the Saint Lawrence River, the ships were supposed to be inspected for disease and any sick passengers removed to quarantine facilities on Grosse Isle, a small island thirty miles downstream from Quebec City.

But in the spring of 1847, shipload after shipload of fevered Irish arrived, quickly overwhelming the small medical inspection facility, which only had 150 beds. By June, 40 vessels containing 14,000 Irish immigrants waited in a line extending two miles down the St. Lawrence. It took up to five days to see a doctor, many of whom were becoming ill from contact with the typhus-infected passengers. By the summer, the line of ships had grown several miles long. A fifteen-day general quarantine was then imposed for all of the waiting ships. Many healthy Irish thus succumbed to typhus as they were forced to remain in their lice-infested holds. With so many dead on board the waiting ships, hundreds of bodies were simply dumped overboard into the St. Lawrence.

Others, half-alive, were placed in small boats and then deposited on the beach at Grosse Isle, left to crawl to the hospital on their hands and knees if they could manage. Thousands of Irish, ill with typhus and dysentery, eventually wound up in hastily constructed wooden fever sheds. These makeshift hospitals, badly understaffed and unsanitary, simply became places to die, with corpses piled "like cordwood" in nearby mass graves. Those who couldn't get into the hospital died along the roadsides. In one case, an orphaned Irish boy walking along the road with other boys sat down for a moment under a tree to rest and promptly died on the spot.

http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/index.html

A FEW TIPS...

2008-04-12T22:47:00.006+02:00

YOU CAN REDUCE YOUR CARBON EMISSIONS
www.climatecrisis.net

Buy energy efficient appliances and light bulbs. (yeah, but then don’t leave them on all day).

Use clock and thermostats to reduce energy for heating and cooling. (and clothes! What’s wrong with wearing a jumper at home?)

Weatherize your house: increase insulation (not isolation)

Recycle (and re-use, and reduce use before that)

Buy a hybrid car (whenever they are available and affordable)

When you can, walk or ride a bicycle (and pray for your life in the latter case)

When you can, use light rail and mass transit (who takes that tram anyway?)

Switch to renewable sources of energy (solar panels are all the rage and sooooo sexy)

Call your power company to see if they offer green energy. If they don’t ask them why not. (if they do, ask them where’the catch is)

Plant trees, lots of trees (ok, careful there. One could do with some kind of supervision, right?)

Speak up in your community. Spread the word (be a green prophet!)

Join international efforts to stop global warming. (by wearing “I ratified Kyoto” badges)

Raise fuel economy standard: require lower emission from automobiles (like a Chelsea tractor?)

Learn as much as you can about climate change (and now that you are at it, do it in English, it won’t hurt)
Then put your knowledge into action (in a gap-filling text, a new writing exercise…)

2008-04-12T22:25:00.001+02:00

Global warming: the chilling effect on free speech by Brendan O’Neill

The demonisation of 'climate change denial' is an affront to open and rational debate.

Whoever thought that serious commentators would want it made illegal to have a row about the weather? One Australian columnist has proposed outlawing ‘climate change denial’. ‘It is a crime against humanity, after all.’ Others have suggested that climate change deniers should be put on trial in the future, Nuremberg-style.

The message is clear: climate change deniers are scum. Their words are so wicked and dangerous that they must be silenced, or criminalised alongside those other crackpots who claim there was no Nazi Holocaust against the Jews. Perhaps climate change deniers should even be killed off, hanged like those evil men who were tried Nuremberg-style the first time around.
Whatever the truth about our warming planet, it is clear there is a tidal wave of intolerance in the debate about climate change which is eroding free speech and melting rational debate. There has been no decree from on high or piece of legislation outlawing climate change denial, and indeed there is no need to criminalise it, as the Australian columnist suggests. An attitude of ‘You can’t say that!’ now surrounds debates about climate change, which in many ways is more powerful and pernicious than an outright ban. I am not a scientist or an expert on climate change, but I know what I don’t like - and this demonisation of certain words and ideas is an affront to freedom of speech and open, rational debate.

The loaded term itself – ‘climate change denier’ – is used to mark out certain people as immoral, untrustworthy. According to Richard D North, ‘It is deeply pejorative to call someone a “climate change denier”… People of various views and hues tend to get lumped together under the umbrella put-down ‘climate change denier’ – from those who argue the planet is getting hotter but we will be able to deal with it, to those who claim the planet is unlikely to get much hotter at all. On Google there are now over 80,000 search returns, and counting, for the phrase climate change denial.

Others take the tactic of openly labelling climate change deniers as cranks, possibly even people who might need their heads checked. Former US vice president-turned-green-warrior Al Gore recently declared: ‘Fifteen per cent of the population believe the moon landing was actually staged in a movie lot in Arizona and somewhat fewer still believe the Earth is flat. I think they all get together with the global warming deniers on a Saturday night and party.’

It is not only environmentalist activists and green-leaning writers who are seeking to silence climate change deniers/sceptics/critics/whatever you prefer. Last month the Royal Society – Britain’s premier scientific academy founded in 1660, wrote a letter to ExxonMobil demanding that the oil giant cut off its funding to groups that have ‘misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence’. It was the first time the Royal Society had ever written to a company complaining about its activities.

Yet some scientists have attacked the idea that there can ever be untouchable cast-iron scientific facts, which should be immune from debate or protected from oil-moneyed think-tanks. An open letter to the Society argues that ‘scientific inquiry is unique because it requires falsifiability’: ‘The beauty of science is that no issue is ever “settled”, that no question is beyond being more fully understood, that no conclusion is immune to further experimentation”. As Charles Jones, an emeritus English professor at the University of Edinburgh, put it in a letter to a publication ‘[W]e are left with the feeling that [climate change] is a scientific model which cannot be – the subject of any theoretical counter-proposals whatsoever. As such, it must surely be unique in the history of science. Even a powerful model such as Relativity Theory has been the object of scientific debate and emendation.’

Some take the moral equivalence between climate change denial and Holocaust denial to its logical conclusion. They argue that climate change deniers are actually complicit in a future Holocaust – the global warming Holocaust – and thus will have to be brought to trial in the future. Green author and columnist Mark Lynas writes: ‘I wonder what sentences judges might hand down at future international criminal tribunals on those who will be partially but directly responsible for millions of deaths from starvation, famine and disease in decades ahead. I put [their climate change denial] in a similar moral category to Holocaust denial – except that this time the Holocaust is yet to come, and we still have time to avoid it. Those who try to ensure we don’t will one day have to answer for their crimes.’

There is something deeply repugnant in this. First, the evidence is irrefutable that six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis; that is an historical event that has been thoroughly investigated, interrogated and proven beyond reasonable doubt. There is no such proof or evidence (how could there be?) that global warming will cause a similar calamity. Second, it is, yet again, a cynical attempt to close down debate. The H-word is uttered as a kind of moral absolute that no one could possibly question. We are all against what happened during the first Holocaust, so we will be against the ‘next Holocaust’, too, right?

Behind the talk of facts and figures we can see a creeping clampdown on any genuine, open debate about climate change, science and society. This represents a dangerous denigration of free speech. When George W Bush said after 9/11 ‘You’re either with us or against us’, he was widely criticised. Yet greens, think-tanks, reputable institutions and government ministers are using precisely the same tactic, drawing a line between good and proper people who accept the facts about climate change and those moral lepers who do not.

Whatever side you take in the climate change clash of facts, this undermining of debate should be a cause of concern. In place of a human-centred discussion of priorities and solutions we have an unconvincing battle over the facts between two sides – between those in the majority who claim that their facts show the planet is getting a lot hotter and it will be a disaster, and those in the minority, the ‘deniers’, who say the planet is getting a little hotter and it won’t be so bad. We could urgently do with a proper debate that prioritises real people’s aspirations. If parts of the planet are likely to be flooded, then where can we build new cities and how can we transport the people affected by the floods to those cities? If natural disasters are going to become more frequent, then how can we urgently and efficiently provide poorer parts of the world with the kind of buildings and technology that will allow them to ride out such disasters, as millions do in America every year?

ADAPTED FROM http://www.spiked-online.com 6 October 2006

EASTER WARNING - in case you're getting ideas

2008-03-23T19:54:00.005+01:00

Easter warning: crucifixion is bad for you
By Thomas Bell

Many people in the Philippines consider crucifixion and self flagellation good for the soul, but it is bad for your health according to new government advice for penitents.

This Holy Week, the thousands of guilt stricken or pious worshippers who will flay the skin off their backs, and the handful who will crucify themselves, are encouraged to get a tetanus shot first and be sure to use a clean whip or nails.

"We are not trying to go against the Lenten tradition here because whipping has somewhat already become some form of ’atonement for sins’ for some of us,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque the 3rd said. "Getting deep cut wounds during whippings or lashings is inevitable and being so exposed during the course of the penitence, with all the heat and dust blowing in the wind, welcomes all sorts of infections and bacteria like tetanus,” he explained.

Re-enactments of the Passion of Christ are common in many parts of the mostly Roman Catholic Philippines but frowned upon by the church authorities.

In San Fernando City 23 people, including two women, have signed up to re-enact the crucifixion at three “improvised Golgothas” around town. Four of them will use real nails.

The city government’s website trumpets the preparations.“The City Health Office (CHO) autoclaved all the nails to be used and will administer anti-tetanus vaccine to all the “Cristos” to ensure their protection from possible infection,” it points out. City officials will conduct an inspection of the Golgothas on Thursday.

The festival is sponsored by Coca-cola and a company called Smart Telecommunications.
In a break from the original tradition, penitents are encouraged to “bring enough drinking water for the whole course of the pilgrimage to avoid dehydration, rather than buy bottled drinking water from unfamiliar sources.”
There is also government advice for the many tourists and spectators who attend the events.
"It is also better to bring self-prepared foods such as sandwiches, not only to save money, but also to avoid getting diseases such as diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid after eating food bought from street vendors,” the health secretary suggested.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news

20/03/2008

ASSORTED HEALTH STORIES

2008-03-23T19:00:00.000+01:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/default.stm

FOREIGN ACCENT SYNDROME

2008-03-14T23:34:00.003+01:00

Foreign accent syndrome is a rare medical condition that usually follows a severe brain injury, such as a stroke or a head injury. As of 1996, there had been fewer than 15 reported cases of the syndrome. The syndrome causes people to speak their native languageas if they had a foreign accent; for example, an American native speaker might speak with a French-sounding accent

Usually, it is very traumatic for stroke patients such as these to find that their accent has unexpectedly changed

UCF clinic diagnoses rare Foreign Accent Syndrome

University of Central Florida speech expert diagnoses disorder that caused woman to speak with British accent after a stroke

ORLANDO, Nov. 19, 2003 - A University of Central Florida speech expert has diagnosed an extremely rare disorder in a Sarasota woman that caused her to speak with a British accent after she suffered a stroke.
The case of Foreign Accent Syndrome - a disorder linked to stroke-related or other internal brain injuries that leaves affected people with a foreign-sounding accent - is one of fewer than 20 reported worldwide since 1919, according to Jack Ryalls, professor of communicative disorders at UCF.
In November 1999, 57-year-old Judi Roberts of Sarasota suffered a stroke that left the right side of her body paralyzed. She was also unable to speak. After months of physical therapy, she was no longer paralyzed and was able to speak with some difficulty. Her speech gradually improved during the next year until she was speaking with the same fluency as she had before the stroke. However, instead of the familiar New York accent she once had, she spoke with a British accent.
Roberts had never traveled to Britain. She didn't recognize her own voice. Her friends and family didn't understand it, and strangers constantly asked her where she was from. One doctor told her she was not working hard enough to get her old voice back. "At times I thought I was losing my mind," Roberts said. "Without the support of my internist and therapist, I wouldn't have been able to cope."

This year, four years after her stroke, she received an e-mail from a friend who found a New York Times article about research on language problems conducted by Jennifer Gurd, a professor at Oxford University in England. "When I read the article I realized there was a chance I had a legitimate medical problem," Roberts recalled, "and that it had a name - Foreign Accent Syndrome."

Roberts contacted Gurd, who referred her to UCF's Ryalls, an expert on neurologically based speech and language disorders who had previously studied the syndrome. Ryalls invited Roberts to UCF and conducted several language tests designed especially for her. He checked her ability to change word stress patterns and accentuation by having her pronounce sentences like, "I wanted to record the record onto a cassette tape." He also had her repeat words stressing the wrong syllable in sentences like, "Put the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLABle." The tests enabled Ryalls to analyze Roberts's speech prosody, or the ability to use the appropriate syllable emphasis, and accentuation, which differs in British and American English. He wanted to determine if she was applying the wrong syllable stress as part of her accent.
After Ryalls' initial exams, Janet Whiteside, an adult neurological disorder specialist at UCF, conducted other standardized tests for language and cognitive functions in the university's Communicative Disorders Clinic. Based on the test results, Ryalls diagnosed Roberts's mysterious acquisition of a British accent as Foreign Accent Syndrome. He has submitted a report of her case for publication in a professional journal.

The first widely known case of Foreign Accent Syndrome reported in English was in 1941, when a Norwegian woman suffered a brain injury after shrapnel hit her head during World War II. She experienced severe language problems but eventually recovered, speaking with a perceived German accent. Her community later ostracized her.

Ryalls said his research on this and other cases, including Roberts's, suggests the syndrome is associated with damage to the left hemisphere of the brain, where language processing occurs.
Ryalls said Roberts developed unique ways to cope with her new voice. "She began to respond to people's constant questions about where in England she was from by asking, 'Where do you think I'm from?'" Regardless of the city named, Roberts would say the person was right.
"In some ways, her response showed she was beginning to accept the accent," Ryalls said. "It was an ingenious coping mechanism, but it also reveals that she had begun to resign herself to the change in her speech."

Although she started to cope with her accent, she avoided most social contact and eventually developed agoraphobia, a fear of open spaces. Roberts even started using a pseudonym, Tiffany Noell, because she was concerned about embarrassing her family. "She suffered greatly from some particularly unsympathetic people who did not understand her changed voice," Ryalls said.
Roberts said she wants people to know about this strange syndrome that can result from a stroke and hopes she can spare others the same alienation and misunderstanding she suffered.
"If I can bring notice to this condition, especially within the medical community, doctors may be able to help others who find themselves in my situation," Roberts said.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/uocf-ucd111803.php

TWO EXAMPLES OF FOREIGN ACCENT SYNDROME

2008-03-14T23:31:00.003+01:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometruths/20050411_italian_accent.shtml
foreign accent syndrome victim interviewed (audio)
(Class exercise)

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=U6y0voUoeGE
foreign accent syndrome victim: American into British (video)

Some radio programmes on health-related issues

2008-03-11T00:24:00.003+01:00

http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/programs/HEALTHMINUTES.htm
HEALTH MINUTES - video/audio short clips with next to literal script

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/casenotes_20080226.shtml
CASE NOTES – long programs + transcript

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/checkup.shtml
CHECKUP – radio phone-in programme +transcript

A) WHAT SCIENTISTS ARE DISCUSSING…

2008-03-11T00:17:00.002+01:00

Menstruation as a Source of Stem Cells? Maybe Not

By ANDREW POLLACK
New York Times Published: January 29, 2008

In the past, menstruation was often viewed as a sign of uncleanliness or shame. In some cultures, women have been banished to huts or forbidden to cook during their periods.
So the prospect that “the curse” might be a source of stem cells to sustain life was a surprise to some experts.

“All the years I’ve been working in cell therapy, nobody ever thought of looking there,” said Dr. Stephen J. Noga, director of medical oncology and hematology at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. Dr. Noga is also chairman of the scientific advisory board of Cryo-Cell International, the company marketing a menstrual blood collection and storage service.

Still, perhaps it should not be totally surprising. The endometrium, the lining of the uterus, regenerates each month, suggesting the presence of stem cells. Indeed, scientists have found such endometrial stem cells. It is possible that the stem cells claimed to be in menstrual fluid are endometrial stem cells that slough off each month during menstruation.

But Caroline Gargett, a scientist at Monash University in Australia who has characterized endometrial stem cells, said it would be strange if lots of these valuable stem cells were shed in menstruation. “If you lose them permanently, you won’t be able to grow the tissue,” she said.
Dr. Hugh Taylor, chief of reproductive endocrinology at Yale, said the healthiest stem cells would come from the part of the menstrual cycle when the uterine lining regenerates. “The menstrual fluid — those cells are dying,” he said.

Dr. Taylor also said a woman could always have cells taken directly from the endometrium by a uterine biopsy, which is routinely performed for fertility examinations. Even after menopause, he said, the uterine lining can be stimulated to grow by giving a woman estrogen.
“I think it’s premature to start telling anyone to go in and save their menses,” he said. “A woman can come in and have endometrial biopsy all the time and get those cells in a fresh, pure form.”

B) WHAT COMPANIES ARE DOING

2008-03-11T00:12:00.003+01:00

Questioning the Allure of Putting Cells in the Bank

By ANDREW POLLACK
New York Times: Published: January 29, 2008

Can a woman’s period save her life years later?

A company called Cryo-Cell International says that it can — that menstrual fluid contains stem cells that might one day be used for medical treatments. The company has not published research verifying the claim. But using the slogan “Your monthly miracle,” it has begun offering, for a fee, to collect and store cells from the fluid for a woman’s future use.

Cryo-Cell, in Oldsmar, Fla., is one of several companies trying to make a business out of banking stem cells. Although businesses that store umbilical cord blood have operated for years, the new services have a potentially broader appeal, to people who are not having babies at the moment.
There are companies that offer to extract and store stem cells from adult blood, from fat removed by liposuction, from children’s baby teeth after they fall out and from leftover embryos at fertility clinics.

But some experts say consumers should think twice before spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on such services, because it is not clear how useful such cells will be. “In the stem cell area, we have a problem with truth in advertising,” said Christopher Scott, director of the Program on Stem Cells in Society at Stanford. “Some of these companies are skirting right on the edge of what’s truthful and what’s vaporware.”

The companies, some of them small and financially shaky, are capitalizing on the excitement surrounding stem cells. The ventures portray themselves as a form of biological insurance. Cells collected from a person could one day be used to treat that person without immune system rejection. “There are potentially scores of applications that could emerge over time,” said Mercedes Walton, chief executive of Cryo-Cell.

The fee for collection and processing the cells ranges from $499 to $7,500, depending on the company. There is also a yearly fee of $89 to $699 for storing the cells in liquid nitrogen.
The services urge people not to wait. Cryo-Cell says that even if a woman will be menstruating for years to come, cells from younger women will be more robust.

Some people buying the services say there is little to lose from doing so except money, even if the chance that the cells will be needed or useful is slim. “The idea is just to have them,” said Stephanie Seidman, a patent lawyer in San Diego with a doctorate in molecular biology. “Once you get sick, it’s too late.” Ms. Seidman had cells collected from her blood at an anti-aging clinic, using a service sold by NeoStem Inc. of New York.

Scientists say it is quite unlikely a person will ever need such cells. And the technology could change so much that cells stored now may not be needed if a person falls ill in 10 or 20 years. Recently, scientists found a way to turn skin cells into cells that behave like embryonic stem cells. That might allow a person of any age to have customized tissue created on the spot.
The companies’ Web sites often talk about all the diseases that may one day be treated with stem cells. But experts say it could be years, if ever, for such treatments to become available.
The main use of stem cells now is to reconstitute the immune system after strong chemotherapy or radiation treatment for certain cancers of the blood. The cells are generally blood-forming stem cells from the bone marrow or bloodstream. Transplants of such cells, often called bone marrow transplants, are used for other metabolic and immune system diseases, as well.
But much of the excitement about stem cells is their possible use to create other tissues like nerve cells to treat Parkinson’s disease or insulin-producing cells for diabetes. The main focus there has been on human embryonic stem cells, which are created from embryos and can potentially turn into all types of tissue in the body.

One cell bank, StemLifeLine, offers to make such embryonic stem cells from the embryos couples have left over after undergoing in vitro fertilization. The cells, which would cost a couple at least $4,000, would not be a complete genetic match either to either parent or to any of their children, which could conceivably limit their usefulness.

Other cell banks are working with adult cells, which are present in the body throughout life. There is evidence that some of these cells can turn into a diverse range of tissues, but the question is unsettled. Stem cells in the pulp of baby teeth can clearly turn into part of the teeth. But contentions that the cells can also form other types of cells, like nerve cells, are more controversial.

“There’s never been a demonstration that these cells actually form nerve cells that can function as nerve cells,” said Pamela Gehron Robey, who headed the lab at the National Institutes of Health, where the baby-teeth stem cells were discovered.

Yet the services offering to store baby teeth talk about all the diseases that stem cells might treat one day. “One day, the Tooth Fairy could save your child’s life” is the slogan of BioEden Inc. of Austin, Tex., which says the cells might be used in the future for numerous diseases, including neurological ones like Parkinson’s and spinal cord injury.

BioEden has more than 1,000 customers, said Jeff Johnson, its president and co-founder. It charges $595 a tooth for extraction and collection and $89 for yearly storage. BioEden solicits dentists, elementary schools and PTAs to help spread its message and collection kits. It will pay dentists or schools $100 a tooth.

EXAM SCRIPT (II)

2008-03-04T01:05:00.003+01:00

ZERO RATING FOR CHEATING SCHOOLS
BBC News 6 Dec 2007

How many schools cheat to make their exam results look better than they should?
Impossible to know, for obvious reasons, but we do know that five primary schools have been given a zero rating because of evidence that they had cheated in SATs tests. Mick Brookes is the General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers. And they would cheat just to look better…, Mr Brookes?

-Erm... yes, I think that’s part of it, and good morning, erm… that’s, that’s part of it. Er…we…we think there’s undue pressure on schools over this whole business of testing, and… let’s just take this straight, it’s not about the test and the NAHT is not into a culture where children are not assessed, but it’s what’s done with the information that’s a problem, erm… and… and we, and of course, we… we don’t condone cheating in these tests either, and if people do that then they suffer the consequences.
-But what’s done with the information is it’s given to us parents so that we can make our own choice. Isn’t that a good thing?
-Erm…, well, indeed it is, and schools should be giving information to parents, but it’s also produced into league tables and we sent out a press release yesterday congratulating the schools that actually this morning find themselves at the bottom of those league tables because they must feel that all the work they’ve done over the year has been wasted, because there they are, down bottom of the league table; actually…
-Probably they deserve to be down the bottom of the table!
-Well… well, so they deserve to have … a community that has a large number of children with special needs.. It’s not, John, it’s not their fault, and this is, this is what’s happening, this, it’s polarizing what’s happening. I think that the work that’s going on in some of these schools that are down the bottom end of the league tables is fantastic, and some of these teachers actually have to take on problems with the children before they can even start teaching them, that they’ve encountered on the night before.
-Well, that may very well be the case, I’m sure it is the case in certain schools, but perhaps not in all! Surely you should accept, if you’re going to congratulate those who’ve done very well, surely you should say in some cases those schools that are at the bottom of the league table are there for a very good reason, that is, perhaps the head teacher has failed!
-Well… again, I think...
-There must be some like that, surely!
-John, you keep using that language of failure, and we’re…
-Yes, because some head teachers aren’t doing a very good job!
-Well, that’s what you’re saying. I’m saying that actually head teachers are trying to do a good job in sometimes extremely difficult circumstances. Now, we’ve got to stop criticising these people…
- Well, you surely…
- Hang on! We’ve got to stop criticizing these people and we’ve got to start supporting them. Now, where… where there are head teachers, and indeed teachers, and er.. working in a school, any member of staff that’s not actually doing a good job, there are measures in there to make sure that... erm... they either get support to improve, or they don’t stay with us. And we just rolled out this year a new performance management system so that every member of the teaching staff including the head teacher will have a thorough and rigorous performance management system applied to them. Now, that’s in place already. What the league tables do, I think at best they tell you where rich people live and, at worse, they deeply demoralize those schools who are struggling day after day trying to bring education to areas that… in the history of this country there has never been a quality of education.
- So you’d get rid of league tables altogether, would you?
-League tables would have to go, and… we don’t have a problem with testing and in fact, the fact that schools invest in buying standardised tests for years 3, 4 and 5 to check their progress I think shows that my colleagues are not against assessment, not against testing, it’s what’s done with the tests that’s the problem.

EXTRA: Now, we need to change that culture. The results have been a plateau for about the last five or six years and if we’re going to move on, then we surely need to think about this in a new way, ewe need to free schools up, we need to encourage them to be innovative and actually as Anthony Seldon, the master of Wellington College says, children are encouraged to develop an attitude of “if it’s not in the exam, it doesn’t matter”, intellectual curiosity is stifled, and young people’s deeper cultural, moral, sporting, social and spiritual faculties are marginalised by a system in which all must come second to delivering improving testing exam numbers. Therefore, liberal education is being replaced by a mere instruction. Now, that is bad news for our education system, it’s also very bad news for those people who’ve become disenchanted, disenfranchised and they disappear from the system as soon as they can.

Exam script I

2008-03-04T00:58:00.002+01:00

CONSTRUCTING PUBLIC OPINION.
How politicians and the media misrepresent the public. (4:22)
Source: http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=h_slmhM6qPI

One of the most important beliefs that people have about politicians is that politicians do whatever polls tell them to do. We hear a lot of complaint about
the lack of strong leadership, that politicians find out what the public wants and then they’ll pander to it, or at least they say they’ll pander to it.

Now, what this idea of the poll-driven politician creates is the impression that the political system may have all kinds of problems but on the whole, it’s responsive and accountable to the public. But once you actually start to look at public opinion in a more detailed way, what you discover is that the idea of the poll-pandering politician is really a myth.

For example, there’s broad support in the US for a whole range of policies. Polls show that most people support increased spending on inner cities; more spending on regulation on the environment; more spending on education; more spending on health care. We also find the majority support increases in the minimum wage, stricter gun control, and campaign finance reform.

In other words, if politicians really were poll-driven, then they’d be in favour of a whole range of liberal or left-wing policies, when in fact they’re not. And the question that this raises in a democracy is how is this mismatch between what the people want and the policies pursued by their representatives possible.

So, how do we explain this contradiction between the myth that politicians reflect the public and the reality that on most economic issues, they actually ignore public opinion? Well, let’s look at how the news media covers public opinion. When the media report on polls, what they’re actually doing is telling a story about what public opinion is, rather than just reflecting it. They’re constructing how we understand public opinion. And the news media have a lot of power here, because they choose what questions to ask and what questions not to ask. Ordinary people’s opinions usually only count inasmuch as they respond to that conversation.

Media influence on public opinion has been studied for many years now. We know, for example, that the media often play what is called an agenda-setting role. Public concern about issues tends to follow media coverage of those issues, rather than any changes in the real world. A few years ago, the degradation of the environment, issues like global warming, destruction of wilderness and chronic air, water and soil pollution, started to get a fair amount of media coverage. Accordingly, polls suggested this was one of the most important issues for most people. But then the news media started to lose interest, and even though most of the environmental problems had become worse since then, polls showed public concern decreasing. Or take an issue like drugs. Over the last two decades, public concern about drugs has

come from 3% to over 50% and back to 3% in polls. And those shifts have absolutely nothing to do with the scale of the problem, and everything to do with the volume of media coverage.

The power of the media to define what issues are seen as important has to do with the relationship between what the media report and what they don’t. Media influence in this sense is subtle but profound. The media can help shape
or modify what we know about an issue. The media create the impression of the American public has a real choice: you can choose Bush or you can choose Gore, the implication being that they’re both very different. But on substantive budgetary or economic issues, the differences between them are really on the margins. Both leading democrats and republicans support the privatized health care system, they support corporate-backed global trade agreements, they support maintaining cold war defence budgets, and they generally favour the interests of big business. But the media give the impression that democrats and republicans represent a broad range of opinion by focusing on civil liberty, not monetary issues, like gay rights or abortion, where democrats and republicans really do differ, and this masks the degree of the elite consensus.

Clinton and Obama's showdown

2008-02-27T14:05:00.002+01:00

A taste of that bitter debate...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7260000/newsid_7266100/7266181.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm&asb=1&news=1&bbcws=1

DEBATES, DEBATES... Spain brings government and opposition face to face; America brings... two rivals within the same side?

2008-02-27T13:42:00.008+01:00

No knockout in Democrats' TV bout
By Kevin Connolly BBC News, Cleveland

It was the most eagerly awaited debate of the primary season so far - another meeting between evenly matched contenders that cried out for the kind of title once reserved for the great heavyweight boxing contests of the past. The 1970s had the Rumble in the Jungle and the Thriller in Manila. Campaign 2008 brought you the Confrontation in Cleveland.

It was Hillary Clinton who did most of the pre-fight publicity work, warning her rival that she wanted to debate his "behaviour in the campaign" and denouncing him for mis-representing her health and trade policies in his campaign literature. "Shame on you, Barack Obama," she had thundered.
The contrast between that attack and her tone in the last debate a few days earlier, when she told her rival she was honoured to share the stage with him, made the prospect of the Ohio debate particularly intriguing.

Clearly, the Clinton Camp cannot decide how to deal with the Obama bandwagon. So, over the course of the build-up to Cleveland, Mrs Clinton has tried implying that she likes him - she praised his "eloquence" last week; but also hinting that she finds him slightly ridiculous - she had a go at parodying his speaking style at the weekend. Like sportswriters assigned to cover a brilliant but inconsistent team we wondered which Hillary would turn up - the sharp-tongued avenger of the last few days, or the conciliatory and rather philosophical figure of last week.

Tension

Journalists are often (and sometimes quite correctly) criticised for focusing on the personal, rather than the political in the race for the White House - of ignoring complex questions of public policy in favour of reporting on the campaign as a combination of horse race and soap opera.
For this 20th Democratic debate of the season - and the second between Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama in the last five days, it felt absolutely right to concentrate on the atmosphere between the two candidates, because it offered the best clue as to where the two camps really feel the balance of advantage really lies between them.
And at that level at least, Cleveland didn't disappoint.
It began with a debate on the differences between their healthcare programmes - differences which in truth are not enormous. I suspect if you read the transcripts of the proceedings you might get the impression that it was a dull exchange - at 16 minutes it was certainly a long one. In fact, it crackled with tension. Everyone in America has by now heard the two Democratic senators comparing and contrasting their health plans, and in Cleveland they did it again.

Attacks

This time the exchanges were snippy and occasionally ill-tempered. You could sense the effort each had to make to force themselves to listen to the criticism. Eye contact was avoided, facial expressions became glassy with the effort of appearing to listen patiently.
It was revealing stuff. Mrs Clinton went after Mr Obama again, charging him with using "very disturbing" tactics and misrepresenting her healthcare plans.
His game plan was clearly to meet the charges with a kind of patient reasonableness which seemed designed to provoke her into being more aggressive still. At one point he said: "Her campaign has constantly sent out negative attacks on us... we haven't whined about it because I understand that's the nature of these campaigns."
Senator Obama's tactic of using the debate to demonstrate his credentials as a man who can bring people together reached a peak towards the end of the evening, when he said of Hillary Clinton... "she would be worthy as a nominee... she's an outstanding public servant" before pointing out that he thought he was a better candidate.
Senator Clinton again showed herself to be a master of detail - and she got across her core idea that she is a "fighter" - but she scored the only real own goal of the night when she complained that she was "always" invited to answer questions first... it seemed to be leading to a charge that the media were giving her rival an easier night, but she allowed the issue to peter out without developing the argument, and that simply seemed peevish.

I suspect these debates only really shift the mood of the voters when a candidate makes a glaring error, or delivers a killer blow - and none of the 20 Democratic debates have been rich in such moments. Cleveland certainly wasn't.
As to who won the debate... well, both candidates are highly-capable , well-rehearsed, and highly experienced debaters and the truth is that while each is capable of scoring an occasional point off the other neither has shown any ability to land a knockout blow. In a situation where Barack Obama has a lead in delegates for the summer nominating conference, and has the momentum with him, he is probably favoured by what might be described in sporting terms as a low-scoring draw.
The bottom line from all this might in the end be that Hillary Clinton needed a clear victory more than Mr Obama, and neither really got one.

SOURCE: adapted from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7266212.stm

Published: 2008/02/27 07:11:44 GMT

Is independence for Kosovo a good thing?

2008-02-20T00:01:00.004+01:00

The Big Question: Why are so many countries opposed to Kosovo gaining its independence?

By Paul Vallely The Independent, Tuesday, 19 February 2008

Why are we asking this now?
Because Kosovo this week declared itself to be Europe's newest country. Some 17 years after the dissolution of Yugoslavia – and after a ghastly cavalcade of ethnic cleansing, gruesome atrocities, forced expulsions and a civil war that killed 10,000 before Nato intervened – the people of Kosovo have declared themselves independent.
Since 1999 they have lived under a United Nations protectorate while conducting negotiations with the neighbouring Serbs to find a mutually acceptable constitutional status for the region. When the talks broke down, the provisional government unilaterally declared independence as the Republic of Kosovo. Some 90 per cent of the two million people are ethnic Albanians, just 10 per cent Serbs. Now the creators of the world's 193rd independent country have sent 192 letters to governments around the world seeking formal recognition of their independence.

What do the Serbs think?
They are very unhappy. They regard Kosovo as the heart of its state since medieval times, even though 90 per cent of its population is of a different ethnicity. The Serbian prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, described Kosovo as a "fake country".

So who's on what side?

The countries who participated in the Nato strikes against Serbia to end the atrocities, led by the United States. President George Bush has already officially recognised Kosovo as an independent state. So will most of the big European nations – Britain, France, Germany and Italy – and the Japanese government is "moving toward recognising" Kosovo, pronouncing developments in line with Japan's criteria for recognising states.
Other EU members – Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, have said they will not. Other countries opposed to an independent Kosovo include Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The neighbouring Balkan states are also divided. Croatia and Macedonia are pro Kosovo, but Bosnia and Herzegovina is not. Other states, like Malta and Portugal, want Kosovo's future be decided at the UN Security Council.

Why is the international community so divided?
In part it reflects each government's differing sense of whether the ethnic Albanians, now Kosovans, were primarily the victims of the Serbs in the war a decade ago. "Serbia effectively lost Kosovo through its own actions in the 1990s," said the Irish foreign minister, Dermot Ahern. "The bitter legacy of the killings of thousands of civilians in Kosovo and the ethnic cleansing of many more has effectively ruled out any restoration of Serbian dominion in Kosovo."
In part it reflects convictions about the solutions to intractable foreign relations problems. In part it is a reflection of the domestic priorities of some governments who fear that support for Kosovo's unilateral declaration could fan separatism in their own countries.

What are the arguments?
The Americans, and most of Nato, believe that a definition resolution of the status of Kosovo is essential for the Balkans to become stable. "A negotiated solution was not possible," said the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. "Peace and stability are the order of the day," said the British foreign secretary, David Miliband. Such is the population imbalance between ethnic Albanians and Serbs that autonomy was inevitable.

The other side counters with high-minded arguments about the inviolability of national sovereignty. "We will not recognise [Kosovo] because we consider," said the Spanish foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, "this does not respect international law".

But it is perhaps significant that those opposing recognition mostly have problems with their own separatist or secessionist movements. "Cyprus, for reasons of principle, cannot recognise and will not recognise a unilateral declaration of independence," the Cypriot Foreign Minister, Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, said. "This is an issue of principle, of respect of international law, but also an issue of concern that it will create a precedent in international relations."
It had, she said, perhaps protesting too much, "nothing to do with the occupied Cyprus, it's not because we're afraid that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) would declare independence because they already did it in 1983 and got a very strong reaction from the (UN) Security Council."

There was similar talk from Sri Lanka. "We note that the declaration of independence was made without the consent of the majority of the people of Serbia and is a violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which enshrines the sovereignty and territorial integrity of member states," a Sri Lankan government statement said, suggesting Kosovo could create an unmanageable precedent in "the conduct of international relations and the established global order of sovereign states".

Those on the other side dismiss this. Kosovo, said the British Foreign Secretary, was a "unique situation which deserves a unique response".

What about the Russians?
It too has its secessionists. Usman Ferzauli, the man who styles himself the Foreign Minister of Chechnya, has just, helpfully, backed Kosovo's declaration. But when he talks about "leading an armed struggle against the world's most aggressive and militarised power for the latest 14 years" he is not talking about the ethnic Albanians but their fellow Muslims in Chechnya, who enjoyed a brief period of autonomy before Moscow re-established control.
There are bonds of cultural and ethnic kinship between the Serbs and Russians. Europe is increasingly wary of the Slavic Bear. The Russians still have their carrier fleet anchored not that far away. Russia insists there is no basis for changing a 1999 security council resolution on Kosovo's status – and says that Belgrade must agree to any change.

What is likely to happen?
The US and the European members of the UN Security Council will back Kosovo's independence. But Russia and China will not. Russia will block Kosovo's membership of the United Nations. Serbia will use all diplomatic means at its disposal to block Kosovo's recognition – and will probably block Kosovo's access to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Council of Europe.

The real questions are less glamorous and more profound. Unemployment in Kosovo is over 40 per cent, corruption and organised crime is bad, and wealth per person is just 5 per cent of the EU average. The troubles are far from over yet.

Is independence for Kosovo a good thing?

Yes...
* 90 per cent of its people are non-Serbs and should be allowed to determine their own fate
* Serbia effectively lost Kosovo through its own actions in the atrocities and ethnic cleansing of the 1990s
* Kosovan independence is the logical working out of the collapse of Communist Yugoslavia after the Berlin Wall came down

No...
* Kosovo has formed the heart of the state of Serbia since medieval times
* All the people of Serbia should have been allowed to vote on the issue of Kosovan independence
* It sets a dangerous precedent for other parts of the world where rebels want to break away

2008-02-18T10:04:00.008+01:00

YES, I AM!!!

SEE YOU ALL IN CLASS...

AGATA

Some years after that famous Hays Code…

2008-01-31T10:13:00.000+01:00

FCC levies $1.4M fine over nudity in NYPD Blue
CBC News Saturday, January 26, 2008

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has ordered a group of ABC Television stations to pay a $1.4-million US fine over an episode of NYPD Blue that showed nudity.
In a notice filed Friday, the FCC said it would fine 52 ABC affiliate stations in the Central and Mountain time zones for airing the episode. Stations in the Eastern and Pacific time zones were exempt because they broadcast the episode at 10 p.m. local time, while the affiliates being fined broadcast it at 9 p.m.

The agency said it had numerous complaints over a 2003 show in which a boy surprises a woman as she prepares to take a shower. The episode of the long-running police show included multiple shots of the woman's naked buttocks, the FCC said.

The FCC found the nudity qualifies as indecent because "it depicts sexual organs and excretory organs." ABC had argued against the fine, saying the buttocks are not a sexual organ and that fans of NYPD Blue would be well aware of the "realistic nature of its storylines." ABC, owned by the Walt Disney Co., plans to appeal the ruling.

The $1.4 million well exceeds the $550,000 US levied against CBS over Janet Jackson's breast-baring incident during the 2004 Super Bowl. The station is challenging that decision in federal court.

Some years after that famous Hays Code… (II)

2008-01-31T10:05:00.000+01:00

THE FCC AND INDECENCY REGULATION
Attempts to control the content of expression in the United States have been around longer than the government, and efforts to regulate indecent broadcasting began with the Federal Radio Commission (“FRC”). When Congress passed the Communications Act of 1934, it transformed the FRC into the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and expanded the role of the agency from addressing signal interference to overseeing the development of telecommunications. It was this law that began the FCC’s foray into the regulation of obscenity and indecency. Today, regulation of broadcast content in the United States comes from several different sources, all of which inform the FCC and the parties subject to the FCC’s jurisdiction.

The FCC’s legal authority to regulate indecency is codified at 18 U.S.C. § 1464. At only twenty-eight words, the statute makes it a violation of federal law to broadcast obscene, indecent, or profane material. The condensed statute reads, “Whoever utters any obscene, indecent, or profane language by means of radio communication shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”

The statute’s enforcement provision provides the FCC with the right to imprison or fine parties found guilty of broadcasting violations. Until 1994, the statute contained a $10,000 cap on per violation fines. In that year, the maximum fine amount was raised to $27,500 per violation. In June of 2004, the FCC raised the amount to $32,500 to adjust for inflation. Now, the BDEA (Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act) provides for even greater fines against broadcasters who air indecent content Although 18 U.S.C. § 1464 prohibits the broadcast of obscene, profane, or indecent material by broadcasters, the federal government cannot completely expunge indecent material from the broadcast airwaves due to the Supreme Court’s recognition of such material’s limited First Amendment protection. Consequently, the FCC has established a safe-harbor period during the hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., when children are unlikely to be among the viewing audience, wherein indecent material may be broadcast. Nonetheless, because the § 1464 proscription only constrains broadcasters, cable operators do not have to conform their indecent programming schedules to meet the safe-harbor requirements. Section 1464 provides little guidance for broadcasters facing enforcement for broadcasting ostensibly indecent material outside of the regulatory safe harbor. Such broadcasters may be subject to fines or forfeitures. Instead of containing specific guidelines, the provision serves as a general warning. For example, it contains no definition of the terms “obscene,” “indecent,” or “profane.”
And although the FCC has defined “indecent material,” it has done little else to further define or clarify the other terms contained in § 1464. In 2001 the FCC authored an Indecency Policy Statement to illustrate how indecency determinations are to be made. Under the 2001 policy statement, the FCC must make two determinations before it can conclude that material is indecent. First, the FCC must determine whether the material falls within the definition of “indecent content,” which specifically requires that the FCC determine whether the material involves sexual or excretory conduct. If the material does not, it falls outside the subject matter proscribed by the indecency regulations. However, if the material does involve sexual or excretory conduct, the FCC must make a second determination because sexual or excretory conduct is necessary, but not sufficient, to render material indecent. Thus, the FCC must also determine whether the broadcast was “patently offensive.”

Source: WHEN IS ENOUGH TOO MUCH? THE BROADCAST DECENCY ENFORCEMENT ACT OF 2005 AND THE EIGHTH AMENDMENT’S PROHIBITION ON EXCESSIVE FINES by AMY KRISTIN SANDERS, ESQ. * Assistant Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; Ph.D., University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, 2007; J.D., University of Iowa College of Law, 2003.

Hays Code

2008-01-15T12:05:00.000+01:00

(NOTE: This is really long, but worth every word...)

The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 (Hays Code)

If motion pictures present stories that will affect lives for the better, they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of mankind

A Code to Govern the Making of Talking, Synchronized and Silent Motion Pictures. Formulated and formally adopted by The Association of Motion Picture Producers, Inc. and The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc. in March 1930.

Motion picture producers recognize the high trust and confidence which have been placed in them by the people of the world and which have made motion pictures a universal form of entertainment. They recognize their responsibility to the public because of this trust and because entertainment and art are important influences in the life of a nation.
Hence, though regarding motion pictures primarily as entertainment without any explicit purpose of teaching or propaganda, they know that the motion picture within its own field of entertainment may be directly responsible for spiritual or moral progress, for higher types of social life, and for much correct thinking. During the rapid transition from silent to talking pictures they have realized the necessity and the opportunity of subscribing to a Code to govern the production of talking pictures and of re-acknowledging this responsibility.
On their part, they ask from the public and from public leaders a sympathetic understanding of their purposes and problems and a spirit of cooperation that will allow them the freedom and opportunity necessary to bring the motion picture to a still higher level of wholesome entertainment for all the people.

General Principles
1. No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.
2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.
3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.

Particular Applications

I. Crimes Against the Law: These shall never be presented in such a way as to throw sympathy with the crime as against law and justice or to inspire others with a desire for imitation.

1. Murder
a. The technique of murder must be presented in a way that will not inspire imitation.
b. Brutal killings are not to be presented in detail.
c. Revenge in modern times shall not be justified.

2. Methods of Crime should not be explicitly presented.
a. Theft, robbery, safe-cracking, and dynamiting of trains, mines, buildings, etc., should not be detailed in method.
b. Arson must subject to the same safeguards.
c. The use of firearms should be restricted to the essentials.
d. Methods of smuggling should not be presented.

3. Illegal drug traffic must never be presented.
4. The use of liquor in American life, when not required by the plot or for proper characterization, will not be shown.

II. Sex : The sanctity of the institution of marriage and the home shall be upheld. Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing.

1. Adultery, sometimes necessary plot material, must not be explicitly treated, or justified, or presented attractively.
2. Scenes of Passion
a. They should not be introduced when not essential to the plot.
b. Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, are not to be shown.
c. In general passion should so be treated that these scenes do not stimulate the lower and baser element.
3. Seduction or Rape
a. They should never be more than suggested, and only when essential for the plot, and even then never shown by explicit method.
b. They are never the proper subject for comedy.
4. Sex perversion or any inference to it is forbidden.
5. White slavery shall not be treated.
6. Miscegenation (sex relationships between the white and black races) is forbidden.
7. Sex hygiene and venereal diseases are not subjects for motion pictures.
8. Scenes of actual child birth, in fact or in silhouette, are never to be presented.
9. Children's sex organs are never to be exposed.

III. Vulgarity The treatment of low, disgusting, unpleasant, though not necessarily evil, subjects should always be subject to the dictates of good taste and a regard for the sensibilities of the audience.

IV. Obscenity: Obscenity in word, gesture, reference, song, joke, or by suggestion (even when likely to be understood only by part of the audience) is forbidden.

V. Profanity: Pointed profanity (this includes the words, God, Lord, Jesus, Christ - unless used reverently - Hell, S.O.B., damn, Gawd), or every other profane or vulgar expression however used, is forbidden.

VI. Costume

1. Complete nudity is never permitted. This includes nudity in fact or in silhouette, or any lecherous or licentious notice thereof by other characters in the picture.
2. Undressing scenes should be avoided, and never used save where essential to the plot.
3. Indecent or undue exposure is forbidden.
4. Dancing or costumes intended to permit undue exposure or indecent movements in the dance are forbidden.

VII. Dances

1. Dances suggesting or representing sexual actions or indecent passions are forbidden.
2. Dances which emphasize indecent movements are to be regarded as obscene.

VIII. Religion

1. No film or episode may throw ridicule on any religious faith.
2. Ministers of religion in their character as ministers of religion should not be used as comic characters or as villains.
3. Ceremonies of any definite religion should be carefully and respectfully handled.

IX. Locations: The treatment of bedrooms must be governed by good taste and delicacy.

X. National Feelings

1. The use of the Flag shall be consistently respectful.
2. The history, institutions, prominent people and citizenry of other nations shall be represented fairly.

XI. Titles: Salacious, indecent, or obscene titles shall not be used.

XII. Repellent Subjects: The following subjects must be treated within the careful limits of good taste:

1. Actual hangings or electrocutions as legal punishments for crime.

2. Third degree methods.

3. Brutality and possible gruesomeness.

4. Branding of people or animals.

5. Apparent cruelty to children or animals.

6. The sale of women, or a woman selling her virtue.

7. Surgical operations.

Reasons Supporting the Preamble of the Code
I. Theatrical motion pictures, that is, pictures intended for the theatre as distinct from pictures intended for churches, schools, lecture halls, educational movements, social reform movements, etc., are primarily to be regarded as ENTERTAINMENT.
Mankind has always recognized the importance of entertainment and its value in rebuilding the bodies and souls of human beings.
But it has always recognized that entertainment can be a character either HELPFUL or HARMFUL to the human race, and in consequence has clearly distinguished between:
a. Entertainment which tends to improve the race, or at least to re-create and rebuild human beings exhausted with the realities of life; and
b. Entertainment which tends to degrade human beings, or to lower their standards of life and living.
Hence the MORAL IMPORTANCE of entertainment is something which has been universally recognized. It enters intimately into the lives of men and women and affects them closely; it occupies their minds and affections during leisure hours; and ultimately touches the whole of their lives. A man may be judged by his standard of entertainment as easily as by the standard of his work.
So correct entertainment raises the whole standard of a nation.
Wrong entertainment lowers the whole living conditions and moral ideals of a race.
Note, for example, the healthy reactions to healthful sports, like baseball, golf; the unhealthy reactions to sports like cockfighting, bullfighting, bear baiting, etc.
Note, too, the effect on ancient nations of gladiatorial combats, the obscene plays of Roman times, etc.
II. Motion pictures are very important as ART.
Though a new art, possibly a combination art, it has the same object as the other arts, the presentation of human thought, emotion, and experience, in terms of an appeal to the soul through the senses.
Here, as in entertainment,
Art enters intimately into the lives of human beings.
Art can be morally good, lifting men to higher levels. This has been done through good music, great painting, authentic fiction, poetry, drama.
Art can be morally evil it its effects. This is the case clearly enough with unclean art, indecent books, suggestive drama. The effect on the lives of men and women are obvious.
Note: It has often been argued that art itself is unmoral, neither good nor bad. This is true of the THING which is music, painting, poetry, etc. But the THING is the PRODUCT of some person's mind, and the intention of that mind was either good or bad morally when it produced the thing. Besides, the thing has its EFFECT upon those who come into contact with it. In both these ways, that is, as a product of a mind and as the cause of definite effects, it has a deep moral significance and unmistakable moral quality.
Hence: The motion pictures, which are the most popular of modern arts for the masses, have their moral quality from the intention of the minds which produce them and from their effects on the moral lives and reactions of their audiences. This gives them a most important morality.
1. They reproduce the morality of the men who use the pictures as a medium for the expression of their ideas and ideals.
2. They affect the moral standards of those who, through the screen, take in these ideas and ideals.
In the case of motion pictures, the effect may be particularly emphasized because no art has so quick and so widespread an appeal to the masses. It has become in an incredibly short period the art of the multitudes.
III. The motion picture, because of its importance as entertainment and because of the trust placed in it by the peoples of the world, has special MORAL OBLIGATIONS:
A. Most arts appeal to the mature. This art appeals at once to every class, mature, immature, developed, undeveloped, law abiding, criminal. Music has its grades for different classes; so has literature and drama. This art of the motion picture, combining as it does the two fundamental appeals of looking at a picture and listening to a story, at once reaches every class of society.
B. By reason of the mobility of film and the ease of picture distribution, and because the possibility of duplicating positives in large quantities, this art reaches places unpenetrated by other forms of art.
C. Because of these two facts, it is difficult to produce films intended for only certain classes of people. The exhibitors' theatres are built for the masses, for the cultivated and the rude, the mature and the immature, the self-respecting and the criminal. Films, unlike books and music, can with difficulty be confined to certain selected groups.
D. The latitude given to film material cannot, in consequence, be as wide as the latitude given to book material. In addition:
a. A book describes; a film vividly presents. One presents on a cold page; the other by apparently living people.
b. A book reaches the mind through words merely; a film reaches the eyes and ears through the reproduction of actual events.
c. The reaction of a reader to a book depends largely on the keenness of the reader's imagination; the reaction to a film depends on the vividness of presentation.
Hence many things which might be described or suggested in a book could not possibly be presented in a film.
E. This is also true when comparing the film with the newspaper.
a. Newspapers present by description, films by actual presentation.
b. Newspapers are after the fact and present things as having taken place; the film gives the events in the process of enactment and with apparent reality of life.
F. Everything possible in a play is not possible in a film:
a. Because of the larger audience of the film, and its consequential mixed character. Psychologically, the larger the audience, the lower the moral mass resistance to suggestion.
b. Because through light, enlargement of character, presentation, scenic emphasis, etc., the screen story is brought closer to the audience than the play.
c. The enthusiasm for and interest in the film actors and actresses, developed beyond anything of the sort in history, makes the audience largely sympathetic toward the characters they portray and the stories in which they figure. Hence the audience is more ready to confuse actor and actress and the characters they portray, and it is most receptive of the emotions and ideals presented by the favorite stars.
G. Small communities, remote from sophistication and from the hardening process which often takes place in the ethical and moral standards of larger cities, are easily and readily reached by any sort of film.
H. The grandeur of mass settings, large action, spectacular features, etc., affects and arouses more intensely the emotional side of the audience.
In general, the mobility, popularity, accessibility, emotional appeal, vividness, straightforward presentation of fact in the film make for more intimate contact with a larger audience and for greater emotional appeal.
Hence the larger moral responsibilities of the motion pictures.

Reasons Underlying the General Principles
I. No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrong-doing, evil or sin.
This is done:
1. When evil is made to appear attractive and alluring, and good is made to appear unattractive.
2. When the sympathy of the audience is thrown on the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil, sin. The same is true of a film that would thrown sympathy against goodness, honor, innocence, purity or honesty.
Note: Sympathy with a person who sins is not the same as sympathy with the sin or crime of which he is guilty. We may feel sorry for the plight of the murderer or even understand the circumstances which led him to his crime: we may not feel sympathy with the wrong which he has done. The presentation of evil is often essential for art or fiction or drama. This in itself is not wrong provided:
a. That evil is not presented alluringly. Even if later in the film the evil is condemned or punished, it must not be allowed to appear so attractive that the audience's emotions are drawn to desire or approve so strongly that later the condemnation is forgotten and only the apparent joy of sin is remembered.
b. That throughout, the audience feels sure that evil is wrong and good is right.
II. Correct standards of life shall, as far as possible, be presented.
A wide knowledge of life and of living is made possible through the film. When right standards are consistently presented, the motion picture exercises the most powerful influences. It builds character, develops right ideals, inculcates correct principles, and all this in attractive story form.
If motion pictures consistently hold up for admiration high types of characters and present stories that will affect lives for the better, they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of mankind.
III. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.
By natural law is understood the law which is written in the hearts of all mankind, the greater underlying principles of right and justice dictated by conscience.
By human law is understood the law written by civilized nations.
1. The presentation of crimes against the law is often necessary for the carrying out of the plot. But the presentation must not throw sympathy with the crime as against the law nor with the criminal as against those who punish him.
2. The courts of the land should not be presented as unjust. This does not mean that a single court may not be presented as unjust, much less that a single court official must not be presented this way. But the court system of the country must not suffer as a result of this presentation.
Reasons Underlying the Particular Applications
I. Sin and evil enter into the story of human beings and hence in themselves are valid dramatic material.
II. In the use of this material, it must be distinguished between sin which repels by it very nature, and sins which often attract.
a. In the first class come murder, most theft, many legal crimes, lying, hypocrisy, cruelty, etc.
b. In the second class come sex sins, sins and crimes of apparent heroism, such as banditry, daring thefts, leadership in evil, organized crime, revenge, etc.
The first class needs less care in treatment, as sins and crimes of this class are naturally unattractive. The audience instinctively condemns all such and is repelled.
Hence the important objective must be to avoid the hardening of the audience, especially of those who are young and impressionable, to the thought and fact of crime. People can become accustomed even to murder, cruelty, brutality, and repellent crimes, if these are too frequently repeated.
The second class needs great care in handling, as the response of human nature to their appeal is obvious. This is treated more fully below.
III. A careful distinction can be made between films intended for general distribution, and films intended for use in theatres restricted to a limited audience. Themes and plots quite appropriate for the latter would be altogether out of place and dangerous in the former.
Note: The practice of using a general theatre and limiting its patronage to "Adults Only" is not completely satisfactory and is only partially effective.
However, maturer minds may easily understand and accept without harm subject matter in plots which do younger people positive harm.
Hence: If there should be created a special type of theatre, catering exclusively to an adult audience, for plays of this character (plays with problem themes, difficult discussions and maturer treatment) it would seem to afford an outlet, which does not now exist, for pictures unsuitable for general distribution but permissible for exhibitions to a restricted audience.
I. Crimes Against the LawThe treatment of crimes against the law must not:
1. Teach methods of crime.2. Inspire potential criminals with a desire for imitation.3. Make criminals seem heroic and justified.
Revenge in modern times shall not be justified. In lands and ages of less developed civilization and moral principles, revenge may sometimes be presented. This would be the case especially in places where no law exists to cover the crime because of which revenge is committed.
Because of its evil consequences, the drug traffic should not be presented in any form. The existence of the trade should not be brought to the attention of audiences.
The use of liquor should never be excessively presented. In scenes from American life, the necessities of plot and proper characterization alone justify its use. And in this case, it should be shown with moderation.
II. SexOut of a regard for the sanctity of marriage and the home, the triangle, that is, the love of a third party for one already married, needs careful handling. The treatment should not throw sympathy against marriage as an institution.
Scenes of passion must be treated with an honest acknowledgement of human nature and its normal reactions. Many scenes cannot be presented without arousing dangerous emotions on the part of the immature, the young or the criminal classes.
Even within the limits of pure love, certain facts have been universally regarded by lawmakers as outside the limits of safe presentation.
In the case of impure love, the love which society has always regarded as wrong and which has been banned by divine law, the following are important:
1. Impure love must not be presented as attractive and beautiful.
2. It must not be the subject of comedy or farce, or treated as material for laughter.
3. It must not be presented in such a way to arouse passion or morbid curiosity on the part of the audience.
4. It must not be made to seem right and permissible.
5. It general, it must not be detailed in method and manner.
III. Vulgarity; IV. Obscenity; V. Profanity; hardly need further explanation than is contained in the Code.
VI. CostumeGeneral Principles:
1. The effect of nudity or semi-nudity upon the normal man or woman, and much more upon the young and upon immature persons, has been honestly recognized by all lawmakers and moralists.
2. Hence the fact that the nude or semi-nude body may be beautiful does not make its use in the films moral. For, in addition to its beauty, the effect of the nude or semi-nude body on the normal individual must be taken into consideration.
3. Nudity or semi-nudity used simply to put a "punch" into a picture comes under the head of immoral actions. It is immoral in its effect on the average audience.
4. Nudity can never be permitted as being necessary for the plot. Semi-nudity must not result in undue or indecent exposures.
5. Transparent or translucent materials and silhouette are frequently more suggestive than actual exposure.
VII. DancesDancing in general is recognized as an art and as a beautiful form of expressing human emotions.
But dances which suggest or represent sexual actions, whether performed solo or with two or more; dances intended to excite the emotional reaction of an audience; dances with movement of the breasts, excessive body movements while the feet are stationary, violate decency and are wrong.
VIII. ReligionThe reason why ministers of religion may not be comic characters or villains is simply because the attitude taken toward them may easily become the attitude taken toward religion in general. Religion is lowered in the minds of the audience because of the lowering of the audience's respect for a minister.
IX. LocationsCertain places are so closely and thoroughly associated with sexual life or with sexual sin that their use must be carefully limited.
X. National FeelingsThe just rights, history, and feelings of any nation are entitled to most careful consideration and respectful treatment.
XI. TitlesAs the title of a picture is the brand on that particular type of goods, it must conform to the ethical practices of all such honest business.
XII. Repellent SubjectsSuch subjects are occasionally necessary for the plot. Their treatment must never offend good taste nor injure the sensibilities of an audience.

Discipline issues

2007-12-17T13:29:00.000+01:00

20somethings say 'six of the best' would curb unruly pupils
By Alexandra Frean, Social Affairs Correspondent

FOR generations of school children the threat of receiving “six of the best” from the headmaster’s cane unleashed an emotional tidal wave of resentment and fear. But now the generation that has been spared the rod wants it back for its own children.

Seventeen years after beatings were banned in state schools and five years after private schools were brought into line, 47 per cent of 18 to 30-year-olds, who were never caned or slippered at school themselves, say they think that society would benefit from the reintroduction of the cane as a “punishment of last resort”.

The survey found a big gender gap on attitudes to corporal punishment amongst both genders and classes. 54 per cent of men support its reintroduction compared to 39 per cent of women. Having children appeared to make no difference to the views held. 46 per cent of those with children were in favour of corporal punishment compared with 47 per cent of those without.
The proposal has found support in some surprising areas. Ralph Woodling, 26, who has just started a teaching course at Cambridge University said the cane “certainly has its place”. “I think it should be used as a preventative measure,” he said. “Not just for someone who hasn’t done his homework, he needs encouragement for that, but if he’s done something naughty then it should be used. “I was given the slipper seven times as a boy and I feel that those who didn’t get it are a little bit cheekier. I also think it shouldn’t be just for the young but it should be used up to the age of 18,” he added.

The finding was greeted with surprise by teaching unions, who insisted the notion would find no support among policy makers or teachers.
But most accepted that the level of support for the return of the cane and the slipper was a reflection of widespread anxiety about deteriorating levels of behaviour within and outside the school gates. Teachers now cite poor behaviour as the biggest single obstacle to their work, according to research published last week by the Times Educational Supplement. Separate research published by the Government shows that 62,000 pupils were permanently or temporarily excluded from school during the summer term of 2003, 17,000 of whom were disciplined for attacking teachers or fellow pupils.

Phil Williamson, head of the Christian Fellowship School in Liverpool, whose legal challenge to bring back the cane in his school will reach the House of Lords in December, said: “A lot of those who want corporal punishment reintroduced will have been in a situation where the unruly pupils in their class really have ruled the roost and spoiled it for the majority of the others who want to get on with their learning,” he said. The alternatives of excluding or suspending unruly pupils did not work, Mr Williamson said. “They merely shift the problem elsewhere.”

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said that the poll finding reflected the fact that the younger generations were thoroughly fed up with bad behaviour and indiscipline and were casting about for solutions: “The younger generation is saying what you might expect the older generation to day,” he said.

Jonathan Dunford general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said that corporal punishment clearly did not work. “When I became a headteacher I found an old punishment book and the first thing I noticed was the frequency with which the same names cropped up in it. It obviously did not act as a deterrent,” he said.

The Times September 13, 2004

Exaggerated?

2007-12-17T13:05:00.001+01:00

Bring Back the Cane!

As you sit listening to the news, a black cloud of despair descends and you have to worry where Australia is heading.

I'm not talking on the political front, or the economic front - although we have become a pack of complete wussers and still have the world's worst company management - but rather young people of today.

And, it has to be said, the reason is gutless politicians and uncaring - or unthinking - parents. Politicians have put so many restrictions on schools - and in particular removing corporal punishment - that kids today laugh at authority. Many parents either don't care about - or never impose - discipline at home and this of course makes the little (or big) beggars think they can get away with anything. Breaking things, being smartarses, getting up to mischief (or, in some suburbs, just starting straight off with armed robbery) and generally being painful and annoying to everyone who has the misfortune to pass them in the street or shops.

And, pity the poor old teachers who have to not only try to educate the little pustules, but maintain discipline long enough to be able to do so. An Australian report has teachers suffering from more and more physical abuse and intimidation at the hands of these little monsters and their cretinous parents. More than 40 phone calls a week go to the teachers' union from staff who have copped something nasty.

Assaults are rising and so what do the politicians do? Yup, stick their heads up their own fundamental orifices and say that nothing seems to be wrong. If a Liberal Party is in power the line is: "We've given more money to schools than ever before and we are getting it right." Wrong! If a Labour Party is in power it's: "Children are little people and we must accord them the same rights as adults. Corporal punishment is barbaric and we have better ways of disciplining them." Bollocks!
Kids understand discipline and when an outbreak of them is standing on a street corner abusing folks - the last thing on their collective brain cell is "ooooh, we may get a detention."
What has always kept kids in line - myself included - is the threat of a damned good caning on the backside by a large male teacher. At my school we had a chap who used to cane overarm - like a cricket bowler. By all accounts it was a ferocious sight and more than one allegedly tough guy left the office with tears in his eyes and a determination not to cop the same thing again.

So, bring back the cane and the strap and put the fear of God back into these little swines, who will - no doubt - turn in teenage monsters and criminals given half the chance.

http://www.webwombat.com.au/entertainment/humour/Grumpy_Old_Coot/grump_cane.htm

How do things work in Europe?

2007-12-15T16:22:00.000+01:00

http://www.eurydice.org/portal/page/portal/Eurydice/EuryCountry
description of education systems acros Europe – updated 2006-07

Teaching has NEVER been easy

2007-12-13T12:05:00.001+01:00

SERMON ON THE MOUNTAIN

Then Jesus took his disciples up the mountain, and gathering them around, he taught them saying:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;
Blessed are the meek;
Blessed are those who mourn;
Blessed are the merciful
Blessed are they that thirst for justice;
Blessed are you when you suffer;
Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven.

Then Simon and Peter said: “Are we supposed to learn this?”
And Andrew said: “Do we have to write this down?”
And Philip said “I don’t have any paper”.
And John said: ”The other disciples didn’t have to learn this”
And Thomas started doing his maths for the next period.
And Bartholomew said: ”Do we have to hand this in?”
And James said: “Will we have a test on this?”
And Mark said: ”Is that gonna be marked?”
And Matthew, leaving the mountain unauthorized, said: “May I go to the toilet?”

Then one of the Pharisees who was present asked to see Jesus’s lesson plan and inquired of Jesus: “Where is your anticipatory set and your objectives in the cognitive domain?”

And Jesus wept.

Science teaching in "top" countries (links to videoclips)

2007-12-13T12:01:00.000+01:00

PISA videoclips on top countries
http://www.oecd.org/document/2/0,3343,en_32252351_32236191_39718850_1_1_1_1,00.html

(Canada, Finland, Japan, Germany and Mexico)

reaction to PISA results in the UK - video links

2007-12-13T11:56:00.000+01:00

Pupils share their concerns over global table slide
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7120000/newsid_7126900/7126980.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&asb=1&news=1&bbcws=1

Children's Secretary Ed Balls speaks to Andrew Marr
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7130000/newsid_7135100/7135173.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&asb=1&news=1&bbcws=1

2007-12-13T11:51:00.000+01:00

Finland stays top of global class
South Korean academic results are flying high

Finland and South Korea remain among the superpowers of education, according to a major international study.

The three-yearly Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) shows that the two countries are in the top five for reading and maths. The rankings are based on tests taken by 15-year-olds in 57 countries.

South Korea has made rapid progress since 2000, says the report - with its pupils improving by the equivalent of a whole school year. Finland, a consistent top performer in international education surveys, also came top of the science league table, published last week.

The survey, gathered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), also highlights the improvements in Poland. The rankings for reading, based on tests taken in 2006, show that Poland is ninth placed, among a group of leading countries identified as significantly above average.

The latest findings also show the extent of global competition in education - with the northern European countries now challenged by and overtaken by Asian rivals, including Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. South Korea has continued to strengthen its position - after a remarkable rise in achievement against international competitors. In the 1960s, the OECD says South Korea's national wealth was similar to Afghanistan's. But a sustained drive in education has seen it rise to the upper ranks in international education leagues - both in subject scores and in completion rates in secondary school. As with Finland, there has been an emphasis in South Korea on education as a key to economic success and the "knowledge economy".

The OECD also highlights improvements in maths scores from teenagers in Mexico and Greece.
The UK has shown a downward turn in its standing - leaving the top 10 for both maths and reading despite an increase in spending on education. It has joined other major European countries such as Germany and France in a group with "average" standards for maths and reading.

And the report says that overall the industrialised OECD countries have not seen improvements to match extra investment. It says that between 1995 and 2004, OECD countries increased education spending by 39% on average, but that in response "learning outcomes have generally remained flat".

BBC News 4 December 2007

Riots in France 2007

2007-12-06T01:23:00.000+01:00

Riots in France 2007 (video links)

1- FRANCE RIOTING 2007 © Independent Television News Limited 2007 (British accent)
Listening exercise (listening for specific vocabulary) available in the downloading area.
http://itn.co.uk/videos/e5705fcbf8b0e0c041a7cdd837221e6a.html

2- FRANCE RIOTING 2007 CBC news (American accent)
http://www.mediascrape.com/News/ViewNewsItem.aspx?newsItemId=35951&rootVideoPanelType=1

Twitter

2007-12-02T10:53:00.000+01:00

"And on the seventh day, God twittered..."

“A global community of friends and strangers aswering one simple question. What are you doing? Answer on your phone, IM or right here on the web!”

Twitter, which was created by a 10-person start-up in San Francisco called Obvious, is a heady mixture of messaging; social networking of the sort associated with Web sites like MySpace; the terse, jittery personal revelations of “microblogging” found on services like Jaiku; and something called “presence,” shorthand for the idea that people should enjoy an “always on” virtual omnipresence.

JASON PONTIN
SOURCE: The New York Times Published: April 22, 2007

What's all the Chatter about Twitter?
By Joanna Bawa

What are you doing?

If you can answer that question in 140 characters or less (around 25 words), you're probably already a Twitterer. Twitter is the newest social network phenomenon, a curious mix of the banal and the profound, and a tool to tax the minds of the finest Web 2.0 researchers.

Sign up for a free account and you're immediately able to create 'tweets', short messages which capture what you're doing at that exact moment. Your tweet is displayed on the site's public timeline (along with the tweets of everyone else who's posted in the last 30 seconds). You can send and receive tweets between designated friends, and you can choose to follow any Twitterer of interest to you, in which case you'll receive updates whenever they tweet. Or you might be followed yourself. Twitter allows tweets to flow seamlessly between mobile phones, emails and instant messages, which is one of its technical claims to fame. Twitterers can update on a minute by minute basis, and many do. The service can be embedded in blogs and will mercilessly send you emails, text and instant messages as your friends update their lives.

But why? What is the point of Twitter? Does it have any genuinely useful use? And, more pointedly, who's making the money?

There are various theories behind the popularity of Twitter. Writing in Slate magazine, Michael Agger suggests that "... Twitter is not a mere procrastination tool. It acts as a mental escape hatch. When answering the Twitter prompt ‘What are you doing?' people have a way of checking in with their essential nonwork selves: 'thinking about fried pickles for lunch' or 'daydreamng about a boy that i fancy and how i can snog him.' It's the 21st-century equivalent of passing notes in class."

Annalee Newitz, writing in the San Francisco Guardian, cites a more elaborate theory to explain Twitter's bizarre popularity: "... an article published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences used data from hundreds of cities to create a mathematical model suggesting that the 'pace of life' in urban areas speeds up exponentially relative to population size. What that means is if your population grows at rate n, your pace of life grows at the rate of n-squared. In other words, really freakin' fast. Pace of life, according to first author of the study Luis Bettencourt, includes everything from technological innovation to wealth and the speed of walking traffic. So you'd expect that as the populations of cities grow, for example, the speed of communications technology such as Twitter should grow exponentially faster.

"Twitter, primarily an urban phenomenon, makes perfect sense if you look at Bettencourt's model. More than half the world's population lives in cities, and many city centers such as the Bay Area are growing. As these populations grow, tech innovation grows far more quickly: thus the move from daily newspapers to blogs to Twitter in just 10 years. Twitter's popularity reflects the accelerating pace in cities: people use Twitter as they stroll around with mobiles, and the rapidity of their updates reflects a sense that new, exciting things are happening to them every minute, not just every few hours (blog time) or every day (newspaper time)."

So Twitter reminds us to stay in touch with ourselves and our friends and consider, as often as we like, what we are doing. That sounds like a good thing - except few of us are doing terribly fascinating or important things every minute of every day. Which means maybe it's nothing more than a distraction, a waste of time, yet another annoying claim on our precious time.

But is Twitter any use, and if so, who's making any money out of it? Perhaps by answering the second question you can get a feel for what the answer to the first might be: no-one is currently making money out of Twitter. It doesn't cost much to run but (so far) there are no subscription fees and no advertisers. Obvious Corporation, its San Francisco-based parent, was waiting to see where it goes and what applications evolve before introducing any sort of serious business model. Now Twitter is a separate corporate entity, so hopes are clearly high.

An evolving application is always an exciting thing, but much of that excitement derives from uncertainty. Twitter, simmering already, could explode into something incredible and produce a torrent of millionaires overnight. Or it could fizzle and die, as everyone gets overwhelmed by updates, depressed by the mundaneness of their daily routine, or just plain bored. It's hard to see quite where it might go beyond a 'where are you? I'm here now' level of service, but maybe that's just the point - if its final purpose were obvious, it would already exist.

Twitter deserves the attention of everyone working in humancentric web applications. Not because it's so useful, but because so far it's not. It's just incredibly popular. And if you think about other apparently-useless-but-popular applications (text messaging springs to mind) it might be as well to be prepared.

Usability News, 12 May 2007
SOURCE:http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article3852.asp

A snapshot of recent messages shows that they range from the familiar "pretending to work", to the slightly surreal "scrambling!". And one idiot just wrote "I'm writing a blog post about Twitter". Oh right, that was me.

Anyway, it all seems fairly senseless and mundane. So why's it so popular? More than 5 million Twitter messages were posted this March alone. As the article suggests, perhaps that's the most interesting thing about the service - that it taps into an unrealised human urge. Maybe it's just a handy new procrastination tool. Or perhaps it actually reflects the super-fast pace of our modern lifestyles. I certainly can't figure it out. Can you?

Will Knight, online technology editor. New Scientist, writing on the purpose of Twitter
SOURCE: http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2007/05/twitter-whats-point.html

Gadget Obsession

2007-12-02T10:41:00.000+01:00

Executive's Career Change Justifies Gadget Obsession
By Jared Sandberg
From The Wall Street Journal Online

It took Lance Schneier three career changes to justify his heavy consumption of hand-held gadgets. The former attorney, natural-gas executive and venture capitalist finally founded a Dublin, Ohio, start-up called Shadowpack Inc., which develops software for cellphones, pagers and personal digital assistants.
Now Mr. Schneier has a better business excuse for toting a small Blackberry pager, a big Blackberry pager, a tiny Motorola phone from Verizon, a Sprint PCS phone (with graphics) and a Palm V with a wireless modem. He has a Compaq hand-held computer, a Palm VII in case the other Palm doesn't work, and a second little Motorola, from Sprint, which is necessary in case he can't get through on Verizon. Total number of hand-helds: eight. Total number of hands: two.

This doesn't include the 14 devices he has passed along to his wife and six kids. Nor does it count the 50 or so abandoned, lifeless contraptions sitting in his basement cupboard, a little museum of old, brick-like cellphones and failed castoffs such as the Apple Newton (he says he had the first one in Ohio). "They're less expensive than cars," says Mr. Schneier of the gear he is currently using. When he wants to carry all his apparatus, he needs a messenger bag.

Hand-held electronic gadgets were supposed to simplify our lives, putting all our communications, lists and schedules into one tiny package. But for a lot of gadget-lovers, it hasn't worked out that way.

Consider David Gang, an AOL Time Warner Inc. senior vice president who carries five devices regularly. There's the Nokia cellphone for regular calls and the Ericsson cellphone with Web access. His VoiceStream phone is the only one he can use when he is overseas. None of his gadgets has address-book capabilities to rival his Palm. He uses his AOL Mobile Communicator to exchange instant messages with fellow AOL executives, who type more than speak. His assistant has a spare Palm, pager and cellphone in the quite likely event Mr. Gang loses something. "I've been through three Mobile Communicators already," says Mr. Gang.

Michael Parekh is overwhelmed by his eight gadgets (Blackberry, Palm, Compaq iPaq, two cellphones, eBook, and two MP3 players). The managing director of Internet research at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has given up trying to wear too much of this stuff for fear of looking like something out of the Old West.
Mr. Parekh has set off on an "ongoing quest," he says, for the perfect gadget briefcase, one that won't let his gizmos eat up two-thirds of the space. Something on wheels would be nice. "At some point you have to have room for work materials," says Mr. Parekh. He has bought dozens of briefcases, half a dozen in just the past year.

Bob Frankston, the co-creator of VisiCalc, one of the first consumer spreadsheet programs, has lugged around as many as seven devices at a time. He stuffs them in his pockets and hangs them on his belt. He once broke a camera in his pocket. "The zoom lens came out at an inopportune time," he says. Mr. Frankston's 18-year-old son, Seth, has pleaded with him to dump the ammo-belt look. "I'm actually embarrassed myself when I carry too many," says Mr. Frankston.

Kevin Donovan, the senior vice president of About.com, clipped four holsters for his Motorola StarTAC cellphone to the laces of different pairs of shoes. He straps his Palm on the inside of his right sock with Velcro, as if it were a small pistol used by a movie villain. He got the idea years ago while he was mountain climbing in Colorado and had nowhere to put his beeper. Using his feet "comes in handy," he says, adding that he has sold a couple of people on the idea. "No one who's tried it has gone back to the belt clip."

Others devise a gadget-management "system." Ari Shomair, an 18-year-old student in Toronto, always wears a jacket and puts his most expensive devices, his Palm for instance, in an inside pocket. The cheaper ones (phone and camera) go in the outside pockets. Hauling his devices around in an "organized fashion is really the greatest hardship," he says. And he always worries that he may have lost one of them. Also, it gets hot wearing a jacket in summertime.

And heavy. So some gadget-heads go on a diet of their own device. John Merson, 57-year-old president of online test-preparation service CollegePilot Inc., carries just five gadgets (two cellphones, an AOL Communicator, a laptop, and a Handspring Visor). Says Mr. Merson: "I'm trying to cut down on the pounds."

DIGITAL AGE: QUESTIONS AND ISSUES

2007-11-25T21:17:00.000+01:00

DIGITAL AGE: QUESTIONS AND ISSUES

Are all youth digital natives? Simply put, no. Though we frame digital natives as a generation “born digital,” not all youth are digital natives. Digital natives share a common global culture that is defined not by age, strictly, but by certain attributes and experiences related to how they interact with information technologies, information itself, one another, and other people and institutions. Those who were not "born digital" can be just as connected, if not more so, than their younger counterparts. And not everyone born since, say, 1982, happens to be a digital native.

Digital Identity and social life : Amidst a digital landscape that offers up a constant explosion of information – and influence - natives assert their personal thoughts and experiences, as well as their own political beliefs. digital natives carry this theme of personalization into their wider lives – by creating and ‘showing their own’ in order to – among many other reasons – assert themselves amongst a sea of information and influence. How do on-line social activities affect off-line identity development?

Digital Safety : There is a history of panic surrounding the introduction of new media forms into society; however, often “new” dangers are “real world” threats now encountered through different mediums. What are thse new dangers, and how can they affect people?

Digital Privacy :Most digital natives (DNs) live online, 24/7, where everything done is recorded for posterity. Some DNs call it expression. Some digital immigrants feel it’s shifting our notions of privacy. Do you share that view?

Digital Creativity : Just as an artist may create a sculpture from materials found in the wild, digital natives view the media landscape as their “natural habitat” from which they can pull resources for creativity, expression, and commerce. Is that as valuable as pre-digital creativity? More? Less?

Digital Piracy :Most adults in today’s society recognize the consequences of theft. To them, illegally downloading a song or ripping a DVD carries the same weight as walking out of the grocery store with an unpaid gallon of milk. Digital Natives, on the other hand, are growing up in a post-Napster world where most of their peers condone casual piracy. Do you agree?

Digital Information Overload Information overload refers to the increasingly frequent state of having too much information to make a decision or remain informed about a topic. This problem can lead to low productivity, frustration, stress, and poor decision making. Have you ever been in that situation?

Digital Information Quality : As opposed to reading books and magazines, digital natives largely draw information from the internet. Since everybody with a computer and internet access can be a publisher on the internet, such information can be incorrect, outdated, or inconsistent. How can that problem be solved?

Digital Education : Technology has always been an important factor for education, but the rapid development of Internet and digital technology over the past decade is changing more than just the equipment used in the classroom: learning styles and school behavior are constantly being shaped by the growing presence of the Internet. How strong is the need for digital literacy among teachers?

Extracts and ideas from http://www.digitalnative.org/Main_Page

NOTE: Napster was a file sharing service that paved the way for decentralized peer-to-peer file-sharing programs such as Kazaa and others which are now used for many of the same reasons and can download music, pictures, and other files. The popularity and repercussions of the first Napster have made it a legendary icon in the computer and entertainment fields.

Data debacle in the UK

2007-11-25T21:05:00.000+01:00

Check this out:

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alastair Darling reveals that computer discs holding personal data on 25 million people and 7.2 million families have gone missing.

The chancellor says the details included names, addresses, dates of birth, Child Benefit numbers, National Insurance numbers and bank or building society account details. Paul Gray, chairman of her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which lost the discs, has resigned over the affair.

The Metropolitan Police are investigating the loss of the password-protected discs which were wrongly sent last month to the National Audit Office (NAO) but never arrived.

Want to know more?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7100000/newsid_7105200/7105204.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&asb=1&news=1

The future of YouTube

2007-11-25T19:42:00.000+01:00

YouTube's next step forward
By Spencer Kelly, Click presenter

We seem to be in the middle of a second dotcom boom. Web 2.0 sites, those whose content is created by millions of users, are all the rage. Wikipedia - the encyclopaedia, MySpace - the social networking site, Flickr - the photo-sharing site and the big name in video - YouTube.
Celebrated by fans of performing animals everywhere, and accused of everything from swamping the internet with traffic to threatening the future of broadcasting as we know it, YouTube still seems at the top of its game.
With more than half of YouTube's viewers now outside the US, it is time for the global phenomenon to go local. Earlier this month, co-founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley announced nine country-specific sites with more relevant content in their specific language.
YouTube has also done deals with professional organisations to show off their content too. But won't these deals affect YouTube's credibility as a community controlled site? "We're about all types of content on our site," said co-founder Chad Hurley. "I think what's made us different is that we weren't making those decisions about what's entertaining or popular with users; we really allowed our community to decide that. "The partnerships that we're putting in place are just providing more great content for the audience, and providing new opportunities for media companies to get in front of people, wherever they're spending time."
Co-founder Steve Chen believes a clip's popularity is defined by the entertainment value rather than production costs. "Even if you go to the YouTube site today and you browse to see the most viewed, popular, shared, interesting videos on the site, there's a great mixture of professionally produced content sitting right next to user-generated content."

Problems of copyright
"It's a new opportunity to distribute content," Mr Hurley added. "We've been fortunate enough to create a popular site, but we're not going to be the last."
They certainly will not. There are several other community video sites already operating, and already offering professional broadcasters added distribution opportunities. Formed two years before YouTube, Metacafe comes with an application which allows you to download full-quality video. And Veoh can distribute full-quality video using a peer-to-peer application, each clip being as long as 45 minutes.
But of course much as broadcasters can see these sites as a promotional tool, it is not always on their own terms. A lot of their content is uploaded without their permission. It has been said that the marketing guys love these sites, but the legal guys hate them. And let us face it - it is very easy to upload copyright protected material to any video site. Certainly copyright issues are taken very seriously, as Viacom's lawsuit against YouTube for a billion dollars proves.
"We've always had tools and we constantly keep adding layers of technology to deal with issues," explained Mr Hurley. "We recently announced audio and video fingerprinting, which we think will add a more effective way to identify what's on the system and control that."

Future challenges
With the world going mobile, any site which wants to be all-pervasive needs to go mobile too. YouTube's new mobile site went live in the middle of June and was supported by the iPhone straight out of the box.
"Mobile devices are such a fitting place to be able to consume this content," said Mr Chen. The short clips of 30 or 60 seconds are perfect when you're waiting for the bus or train, to be able to just flip open your mobile device and watch this content. "But there are obstacles, in that it's not something we can do independent of everyone else; it requires co-operation with mobile carriers and handset manufacturers to be cohesive, to co-operate to work through this."
So what of the future? In this era of high-def TV, will we see YouTube improving its picture quality to match the high standards we will expect if we are to watch it on our big screen TVs? You Tube's co-founders do not necessarily think so. "It's not necessarily about the quality of the video clip," explained Mr Chen, "but the quality of the content.
"We're always exploring new ways of improving the quality and improving the end-user experience. We're also very keen on preserving the accessibility of the site for people all around the world.”

SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/6277194.stm

Carl Owen on "digital age" kids

2007-11-21T00:45:00.001+01:00

boomp3.com

Jon Hand on "digital age" kids

2007-11-21T00:43:00.001+01:00

boomp3.com

LISTEN TO THE NATIVES

2007-11-20T00:51:00.000+01:00

Listen to the Natives

Schools are stuck in the 20th century. Students have rushed into the 21st. How can schools catch up and provide students with a relevant education?

Marc Prensky

School didn't teach me to read—I learned from my games.
—A student

Educators have slid into the 21st century—and into the digital age—still doing a great many things the old way. It's time for education leaders to raise their heads above the daily grind and observe the new landscape that's emerging. Recognizing and analyzing its characteristics will help define the education leadership with which we should be providing our students, both now and in the coming decades.
Times have changed. So, too, have the students, the tools, and the requisite skills and knowledge. Let's take a look at some of the features of our 21st century landscape that will be of utmost importance to those entrusted with the stewardship of our children's 21st century education.

Digital Natives

Our students are no longer “little versions of us,” as they may have been in the past. In fact, they are so different from us that we can no longer use either our 20th century knowledge or our training as a guide to what is best for them educationally.

I've coined the term digital native to refer to today's students (2001). They are native speakers of technology, fluent in the digital language of computers, video games, and the Internet. I refer to those of us who were not born into the digital world as digital immigrants. We have adopted many aspects of the technology, but just like those who learn another language later in life, we retain an “accent” because we still have one foot in the past. We will read a manual, for example, to understand a program before we think to let the program teach itself. Our accent from the predigital world often makes it difficult for us to effectively communicate with our students.
Our students, as digital natives, will continue to evolve and change so rapidly that we won't be able to keep up. This phenomenon renders traditional catch-up methods, such as inservice training, essentially useless. We need more radical solutions. For example, students could learn algebra far more quickly and effectively if instruction were available in game format. Students would need to beat the game to pass the course. They would be invested and engaged in the process.
We also need to select our teachers for their empathy and guidance abilities rather than exclusively for their subject-matter knowledge. We all remember best those teachers who cared about us as individuals and who cut us some slack when necessary. In today's rush to find teachers qualified in the curriculum, we rarely make empathy a priority.

Shifting Gears

As educators, we must take our cues from our students' 21st century innovations and behaviors, abandoning, in many cases, our own predigital instincts and comfort zones. Teachers must practice putting engagement before content when teaching. They need to laugh at their own digital immigrant accents, pay attention to how their students learn, and value and honor what their students know. They must remember that they are teaching in the 21st century. This means encouraging decision making among students, involving students in designing instruction, and getting input from students about how they would teach. Teachers needn't master all the new technologies. They should continue doing what they do best: leading discussion in the classroom. But they must find ways to incorporate into those discussions the information and knowledge that their students acquire outside class in their digital lives.

Our young people generally have a much better idea of what the future is bringing than we do. They're already busy adopting new systems for communicating (instant messaging), sharing (blogs), buying and selling (eBay), exchanging (peer-to-peer technology), creating (Flash), meeting (3D worlds), collecting (downloads), coordinating (wikis), evaluating (reputation systems), searching (Google), analyzing (SETI), reporting (camera phones), programming (modding), socializing (chat rooms), and even learning (Web surfing).

We need to help all our students take advantage of these new tools and systems to educate themselves. I know this is especially hard when we're the ones floundering, but teachers can certainly ask students, “Does anyone do anything on the Web that is relevant to what we're discussing?” or “Can you think of any examples of this problem in your computer games?” Teachers can also help students figure out who has the best access to technology outside school and encourage students to form study groups so that more students benefit from this access. Teachers can learn what technological equipment they need in their classrooms simply by asking students, and they can lobby to get these items installed in school computer labs and libraries.

Collaborating with Students

As 21st century educators, we can no longer decide for our students; we must decide with them, as strange as that may feel to many of us. We need to include our students in everything we do in the classroom, involving them in discussions about curriculum development, teaching methods, school organization, discipline, and assignments. Faculty or administration meetings can no longer be effective without student representation in equal numbers. Our brightest students, trusted with responsibility, will surprise us all with their contributions.
This may sound like the inmates are running the asylum. But it's only by listening to and valuing the ideas of our 21st century students that we will find solutions to many of our thorniest education problems. For example, putting a Webcam in every classroom is a digital native way to show administrators and parents what really goes on. Teachers could also volunteer for this activity to document and share best practices.
Students could quite feasibly invent technological solutions to streamline homework submission and correction, freeing up teachers for more meaningful work. Encouraged to share their expertise, students can be a teacher's best resource for suggesting better access to technology, defining the kinds of technology that teachers should be using in the classroom, and showing teachers how they can use specific hardware and software tools to teach more effectively.

School Versus After School

Pragmatically, our 21st century kids' education is quickly bifurcating. The formal half, “school,” is becoming an increasingly moribund and irrelevant institution. Its only function for many students is to provide them with a credential that their parents say they need. The informal, exciting half of kids' education occurs “after school.” This is the place where 21st century students learn about their world and prepare themselves for their 21st century lives. It is revealing that one of the most prevalent student demands regarding technology is to keep their schools' computer labs open until midnight (and for us to stay out of their way while they are there). It is equally telling that so many software and Web programs aimed at enhancing kids' education are designed for after-school rather than in-school use.
If our schools in the 21st century are to be anything more than holding pens for students while their parents work, we desperately need to find ways to help teachers integrate kids' technology-rich after-school lives with their lives in school. It doesn't help if, in the words of Henry Kelly, president of the Federation of American Scientists, “the cookies on my daughter's computer know more about her interests than her teachers do.” It helps even less that a great many of our teachers and administrators have no idea what a cookie or a blog or a wiki even is.

Extracts from:

Educational Leadership December 2005/January 2006 Volume 63 Number 4 Learning in the Digital Age
(NOTE: the selection of sentences in bold type is not the author's)

http://www.ascd.org/authors/ed_lead/el200512_prensky.html

"No, you weren't downloaded. You were born."

remembrance day: US, AUSTRALIA, CANADA

2007-11-18T19:18:00.000+01:00

Veterans Day/Remembrance Day US November 11

Veterans Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in Canada and England were originally called Armistice Day. Armistice Day was the day on which the armistice agreement between the Allies and the Central Powers was signed, ending World War I at 11 o’clock on November 11, 1918. This was the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. At the time, many people thought there would never be another war.

After World War II, England and Canada changed the name of Armistice Day to Remembrance Day. The United States changed the name to Veterans Day to honor those who have served in the armed forces during all of its wars. Veterans Day is different from and much more inclusive than Memorial Day (May 30th) which honors those who died in the service of their country.
On Veterans Day there are parades and speeches. People visit war memorials and place wreaths there.

Remembrance Day AUSTRALIA Nov 11

Remembrance Day (11 November) marks the anniversary of the armistice which ended the First World War (1914-18). Each year Australians observe one minute's silence at 11am on 11 November in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts and all those who have served during the past 100 years.
A few schools each week are given the opportunity to have a small wreathlaying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier. A returned serviceman or woman and the school’s local Federal Member of Parliament (if available) will attend the wreathlaying ceremony.
More than 416 000 Australians volunteered for service in World War I. Of these, 324 000 served overseas. More than 60 000 Australians were killed, including 45 000 who died on the Western Front in France and Belgium and more than 8 000 who died on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey.
In Australia and other allied countries, including New Zealand, Canada and the United States, 11 November became known as Armistice Day - a day to remember those who died in World War I. The day continues to be commemorated in Allied countries. After World War II the Australian Government agreed to the United Kingdom's proposal that Armistice Day be renamed Remembrance Day to commemorate those who were killed in both World Wars. Today the loss of Australian lives from all wars and conflicts is commemorated on Remembrance Day.

Veterans’ Week –CANADA 6-11 November

Each year, Canada marks Veterans' Week from November 5 to 11. Veterans' Week is a time to honour and remember all those who served Canada in times of war, military conflict and peace. Throughout the week, commemorative events and activities will be held in communities across Canada.

SOURCES / LINKS TO FURTHER INFORMATION

CANADA http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/
AUSTRALIA http://www.dva.gov.au/commem/rememb/Rem_day.htm
USA http://www1.va.gov/opa/vetsday/

Official speech on Remembrance Day (fragment)

2007-11-18T19:16:00.001+01:00

boomp3.com

REMEMBRANCE DAY SPEECH SCRIPT (FRAGMENT)

2007-11-18T19:15:00.000+01:00

REMEMBRANCE DAY SPEECH SCRIPT(FRAGMENT)

We do not know this Australian's name and we never will.
We do not know his rank or his battalion. We do not know where he was born, nor precisely how and when he died. We do not know where in Australia he had made his home or when he left it for the battlefields of Europe. We do not know his age or his circumstances – whether he was from the city or the bush; what occupation he left to become a soldier; what religion, if he had a religion; if he was married or single. We do not know who loved him or whom he loved. If he had children we do not know who they are. His family is lost to us as he was lost to them. We will never know who this Australian was.
Yet he has always been among those whom we have honoured. We know that he was one of the 45,000 Australians who died on the Western Front. One of the 416,000 Australians who volunteered for service in the First World War. One of the 324,000 Australians who served overseas in that war and one of the 60,000 Australians who died on foreign soil. One of the 100,000 Australians who have died in wars this century.
He is all of them. And he is one of us.
(…)

The Hon. P. J. Keating MP
Prime Minister of Australia
Remembrance day 1993

Hilarious string of misunderstandings: Why the names of the key players in the news are important

2007-11-16T20:13:00.000+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-oS5MOLXfU

BACKGROUND TO REMEMBRANCE DAY (11 NOVEMBER)

2007-11-14T00:04:00.001+01:00

Remembrance Day - Poppy Day UK

Many countries have a special day to remember those that fell in their wars; America has Veterans Day, while France has Armistice Day. The British commemorate those who fought, and are still fighting, in wars for their country on Remembrance Day.

The British Remembrance Day is always held on the 11 November. This is the day that World War One ended in 1918, when the armistice was signed in Compiègne, Northern France, at 5am. Six hours later, the fighting stopped, and to commemorate this there is a two minute silence in the UK at 11am, every 11 November.

The period of silence was first proposed by a Melbourne journalist, Edward George Honey, in a letter published in the London Evening News on 8 May 1919, which subsequently came to the attention of King George V. On 7 November, 1919, the king issued a proclamation which called for a two-minute silence:

All locomotion should cease, so that, in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead.

As well as the two-minute silence, there are marches around the country by war veterans. The Royal Family, along with leading politicians, gather at the Cenotaph, a large war memorial in Whitehall, in London.
The nearest Sunday to the 11th is called Remembrance Sunday, when church services are held in honour of those involved in wars, and wreaths are laid on the memorials which have a place in every town. Many two-minute silences are followed by a lone bugler playing The Last Post, reminiscent of times of war when trumpets were as much a part of battle as bayonets. A poem called 'For the Fallen' is often read aloud on the occasion; the most famous stanza of which reads:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Fourth stanza of 'For the Fallen' by Laurence Binyon (1869 - 1943)

These words can be found adorning many war memorials across the country. The author, Laurence Binyon, was never a soldier but certainly appreciated the horrors of war.
Remembrance day is taken very seriously, with disrespect being avoided at all costs (which is why the vandalisation of the Cenotaph on 1 May 2000 was seen as such a horrific crime). If 11 November falls on a weekday, schools, workplaces and shopping centres generally attempt to observe the silence, although some people choose to ignore their attempts and go about their business regardless.

Remembrance Day is also known as Poppy Day, because it is traditional to wear an artificial poppy. They are sold by the Royal British Legion, a charity dedicated to helping war veterans, although they do not have a fixed price - they rely on donations. The motto of the British Legion is Remember the dead; don't forget the living, and they are campaigners for issues relating to war veterans, especially elderly ones.

The poppies are worn because in World War One the Western Front contained in the soil thousands of poppy seeds, all lying dormant. They would have lain there for years more, but the battles being fought there churned up the soil so much that the poppies bloomed like never before. The most famous bloom of poppies in the war was in Ypres, a town in Flanders, Belgium, which was crucial to the Allied defence. There were three battles there, but it was the second, which was calamitous to the allies since it heralded the first use of the new chlorine gas the Germans were experimenting with, which brought forth the poppies in greatest abundance, and inspired the Canadian soldier, Major John McCrae, to write his most famous poem. This, in turn, inspired the British Legion to adopt the poppy as their emblem.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

The American Moira Michael from Georgia, was the first person to wear a poppy in remembrance. In reply to McCrae's poem, she wrote a poem entitled 'We shall keep the faith' which includes the lines:
And now the Torch and Poppy Red We wear in honor of our dead.

She bought some poppies, wore one, and sold the others, raising money for ex-servicemen. Her colleague, French YMCA Secretary Madame Guerin, took up the idea and made artificial poppies for war orphans. It caught on. In November 1921, the British Legion and Austrian Returned Sailor's and Soldier's League sold them for the first time.

The tragic events in New York on 11September 2001, left ever increasing numbers of people feeling stronger than ever the need for peace. This, in turn, prompted the manufacture of white poppies to represent peace. They are not a new idea, though. In fact, they date from 1933, having been designed by a UK Women's Guild. The British Legion was invited to produce them twice, in 1933 and 1988, but they not only declined, they also refused to accept the proceeds from them, because they were seen as disrespectful by some soldiers. They are having a surge in popularity once again as people stop feeling as safe as they once did.

Adapted from various sources

2007-11-14T00:00:00.000+01:00

Ex-chief justice urges lawyers to rise up against Musharraf
Declan Walsh in Islamabad Adapted from The Guardian Wednesday November 7, 2007

Pakistan's deposed chief justice urged embattled lawyers to defy President Pervez Musharraf's crackdown yesterday as the government considered delaying elections by several months.
Speaking from house arrest, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry told a gathering of lawyers in Islamabad to "rise up and restore the constitution". "Go to every corner of Pakistan and give the message that this is the time to sacrifice," he said. "Don't be afraid. God will help us and the day will come when you'll see the constitution supreme and no dictatorship for a long time."

But street protests diminished in the rest of the country as security forces continued to crush dissent.
Continuing western pressure, Gordon Brown "strongly urged" a return to constitutional rule. More than 2,500 people have been arrested since Saturday's declaration of emergency rule, under which the constitution has been suspended, television channels silenced and independent-minded judges fired. The largest demonstration was in the southern city of Multan, where riot police attacked hundreds of lawyers, leaving some bloodied as they were loaded into police vans.
The prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, convened the cabinet to consider the timing of elections due by mid-January but no decision was taken. However one minister indicated they could be postponed by up to three months, despite US and British pressure for early polls.
The opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who flew from Karachi to Islamabad, said the government had already decided to delay elections by at least a year. "I know this from the inside," she told Associated Press. Ms Bhutto, whose party has avoided the worst of the crackdown thanks to a recent political deal with Gen Musharraf, said her party would "build pressure" on Gen Musharraf to resign from the army and hold early elections by protesting outside the national parliament. "We are very worried that if Pakistan implodes it could have far-reaching consequences," she said. "This is a nuclear armed country and it is facing a very serious crisis." Ms Bhutto said she would meet opposition leaders instead of Gen Musharraf.
Last night the acting leader of Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party, Javed Hashmi, was in jail, as was Qazi Hussain Ahmed of the Jamaat Islami party.
Former cricketer Imran Khan was on the run, having fled his home before police could seize him. Mr Khan, who leads a small opposition party, issued a statement through his former wife Jemima, in which he pledged to lead an underground movement against the emergency rule.
"The police have ransacked my house and ill-treated my family members," he said in the message."Our aim is to continue the struggle and mobilise the youth of the country from underground. This move of Musharraf's will ignite militancy and extremism."
Although Gen Musharraf has used Islamist violence to justify the imposition of emergency rule, many Pakistanis see it as a last-ditch effort to cling to power. But street protests have failed to ignite support outside politicians, lawyers and human rights activists.
Yesterday about 200 lawyers listened outside the offices of the Islamabad bar association as Justice Chaudhry delivered his speech. "This is a tough time in the history of Pakistan. We may have to give our lives," said Shakeel A Mian, as lawyers marched around the marketplace afterwards. But few of the shopkeepers or legal clerks in the market looked inclined to join them. A court in Lahore granted bail to 54 human rights activists, 30 of whom were released last night. Friends said the US ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, had lobbied for their release.

Musharraf's chief critic silenced as lawyers continue protests

2007-11-08T18:43:00.000+01:00

Musharraf's chief critic silenced as lawyers continue protests
Zahid Hussain in Islamabad and Jeremy Page in Karachi Times Online November 6, 2007

A call to protest by the chief critic of the Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, was cut short today when the Government shut down parts of the mobile telephone network in the capital.
Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhury, the dismissed Chief Justice of Pakistan, who is now under house arrest in Islamabad, used a telephone conference this morning to urge lawyers to demonstrate against the state of emergency imposed by General Musharraf on Saturday. Mr Chaudhury, a figurehead for the opposition, made the call as the Government met to discuss a schedule for parliamentary elections amid mounting international pressure to lift the emergency.
"I want lawyers to spread my message: the time for sacrifice has come and to stand up for the constitution," he said to cheers from supporters. "There will be no dictatorship." Lawyers outside his home shouted: “Musharraf is a criminal — we will not accept uniforms or bullets!” The teleconference was cut off after two minutes when the mobile network went dead, but the move failed to prevent lawyers from demonstrating for a second day in several cities. The worst unrest was in the central city of Multan, where police used batons to disperse about 1,000 lawyers as they tried to leave a court complex to start a street rally.
Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister, was flying from Karachi to Islamabad this afternoon for a meeting with other opposition leaders to discuss whether to join the lawyers’ protests. The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy will meet tomorrow morning ahead of a planned rally by Ms Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party in the city of Rawalpindi, next to Islamabad.
Analysts say that General Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, now has little room to manoeuvre as he has lost the support of moderate and Islamist Pakistanis alike - as well as many in the international community. But he is still showing no signs of bowing to the domestic and international pressure to lift the emergency, which has banned public meetings and taken private television networks off the air.
The Government today backed away from comments from the Attorney-General yesterday suggesting that a decision had been made to hold elections, as originally planned, by January 15. Instead, it said it was meeting to discuss the election timetable, repeating General Musharraf’s pledge to stick as closely as possible to the original schedule. The Government also dismissed international criticism of the emergency, urging its Western allies to be patient.
President Bush led international calls yesterday for General Musharraf to release hundreds of opposition activists, step down as army chief and hold elections as originally scheduled. General Musharraf told foreign ambassadors that he imposed the emergency to stop the judiciary and media impeding his campaign against Islamist militants.
The General has deployed more than 90,000 troops to help fight to al-Qaeda and Taleban militants in northwestern Pakistan since allying himself with the United States after the 9/11 attacks. Pakistan's Interior Ministry said that a record 667 people had been killed and 2,000 injured in "terrorist" attacks this year, including an unprecedented 43 suicide bombings.
Mr Chaudhury, however, said that General Musharraf imposed the emergency because it feared an imminent Supreme Court ruling on the legality of his victory in an October 6 presidential election.
General Musharraf tried to dismiss Mr Chaudhury in March, fearing that the independent-minded judge could thwart his re-election plans, but was forced to re-instate him in July after massive protests by lawyers. Mr Chaudhury was dismissed again on Saturday, along with eight other judges, for refusing to endorse the emergency. The others are also under house arrest, some of them locked inside their own homes.

2007-11-04T23:32:00.000+01:00

THE FOX IN THE HENHOUSE
Adapted from TIME Thursday, Jun. 28, 2007 By ERIC POOLEY

“They're taking five billion dollars out of me and want to keep control," Rupert Murdoch was saying into the phone, "in an industry in crisis! They can't sell their company and still control it — that's not how it works. I'm sorry!"

It was a little before 5 o'clock on Friday, June 22, and the chairman of News Corp.--the world's third largest media conglomerate, with a value of $68 billion, and one of the few megacorporations controlled by a single individual--was at his desk on the eighth floor of his midtown Manhattan headquarters, trying to shore up a deal he had dreamed about for a decade.

On the wall beside Murdoch, 76, six muted flat-panel television monitors were tuned to 11 different stations — five split-screened and one devoted entirely to his beloved Fox News. But he never glanced at the monitors. He was speaking in soft bursts to an investment banker on the other end of the line. Murdoch had stripped off his jacket and tie, and his thin, dyed-brown hair was scattered across his scalp. His controversial $5 billion deal to acquire Dow Jones & Co. and its crown jewel, the Wall Street Journal, was in danger of crashing. Murdoch was playing poker: to get the deal back on track, he had to threaten to walk — and mean it.
Two months earlier, at a secret March 29 breakfast in the News Corp. building, Murdoch had told Dow Jones CEO Richard Zannino about his $60-a-share offer for the company — a staggering price for a stock that had been trading around $36. But the family that has controlled Dow Jones for more than 100 years, the Bancrofts, at first rejected Murdoch's bid because some of its members loathed his tabloid style and feared he would trample the Journal's independence. The family haggled for two weeks over a proposal designed to buffer the Journal's newsroom from Murdoch.
Murdoch hated the proposal. In his view, it would give the Bancroft family more involvement over the Journal after they sold it than they had exercised before. So he rolled up his sleeves and started working the phones, making his feelings known to key players in the deal, turning up the pressure and threatening to pull his offer — a move that would have sent Dow Jones stock plummeting back to earth.
Murdoch wanted to jolt the Bancroft family back to reality, and if the deal was going to die, he wanted to be the one to kill it. "If we clean this up to our satisfaction, the family will reject it. So why don't we just reject them?"
As it turned out, Murdoch didn't have to withdraw his bid. The threat of pulling was enough to get the family to budge.
Should the deal close as expected, Murdoch — the ultimate outsider, the ink-stained interloper who started in 1953 with a single paper in Adelaide, Australia — would add capitalism's daily chronicle to an empire that now comprises the Fox movie studio and television network, satellite TV systems in Europe and Asia, more than 100 newspapers and a fast-growing Internet division that includes MySpace, the massively popular social networking site.

He generates his own good fortune by being perhaps the most gifted opportunist in media, a man whose nose for a deal makes him the last of the true media moguls, the one who's still building — grabbing Dow Jones, dreaming about trading MySpace for a big chunk of Yahoo!, trying to launch a Polish TV network.

And he lives like an old-fashioned tycoon too, hopscotching the planet on his 737 and recharging on his yacht off St. Tropez. Recent stop: London, where he got thrown from a horse (but didn't break anything — too busy). His likeness was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery and he threw a party in Kensington Gardens for 400 friends, including incoming British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Murdoch and his third wife, Chinese-born Wendi Deng, 38, have added two daughters, ages 3 and 5, to a fiercely competitive yet surprisingly close-knit family of four adult siblings from his two previous marriages. Murdoch likes to say he has 20 good years left.

Today the notion of this tabloid terror controlling the world's leading business journal is being met with ferocious opposition in many quarters of the American media. Some of the opposition is principled, some of it is sanctimonious, and some of it seems driven by a tangle of ideological and commercial motives. Each day brings another investigative story about Murdoch using his media properties to boost his business interests, reward his friends and punish his rivals, and each story carries the message that this man will destroy the Journal by using its hugely respected news pages as his personal fief. Of course, its editorial pages are already more conservative than Murdoch.

What´s Wrong With The News

2007-11-04T22:38:00.000+01:00

Independent, aggressive and critical media are essential to an informed democracy. But mainstream media are increasingly cozy with the economic and political powers they should be watchdogging. Mergers in the news industry have accelerated, further limiting the spectrum of viewpoints that have access to mass media. With U.S. media outlets overwhelmingly owned by for-profit conglomerates and supported by corporate advertisers, independent journalism is compromised.

FAIR, the national media watch group, has been offering well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986. We work to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints. As an anti-censorship organization, we expose neglected news stories and defend working journalists when they are muzzled. As a progressive group, FAIR believes that structural reform is ultimately needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting and promote strong non-profit sources of information.
Uniquely, FAIR works with both activists and journalists. We maintain a regular dialogue with reporters at news outlets across the country, providing constructive critiques when called for and applauding exceptional, hard-hitting journalism. We also encourage the public to contact media with their concerns, to become media activists rather than passive consumers of news.

What's FAIR?

By Jeff Cohen

FAIR is a media watch organization offering constructive criticism in an effort to correct media imbalance. We advocate for media access on behalf of those constituencies in our society that do not have the wealth to purchase their own TV stations or daily newspapers. We scrutinize media practices that slight public interest, peace and minority viewpoints.All of us who founded FAIR have media backgrounds. Our sympathies are with the working press. We do not view reporters, editors and producers as our enemy. Nor do we hunt for conspiracies. The villain we see is not a person or group, but a historical trend: the increasing concentration of the U.S. media in fewer and fewer corporate hands.FAIR was launched in mid-1986 at a time when the major media were bending distinctly rightward. Big media businesses were being absorbed by even bigger ones, with dangerous implications for those viewpoints already underrepresented. Well-financed right-wing groups like the misnamed Accuracy In Media (AIM) were harassing journalists who uncovered unpleasant truths about poverty, inequality, government corruption or U.S. military and nuclear policy.FAIR came into being to offer a different kind of media criticism -- fully in keeping with the First Amendment. We do not work to prevent the airing of viewpoints with which we disagree. Our approach is to work for the inclusion of new viewpoints, not the exclusion of old ones. We seek to invigorate free speech by striving for a more pluralistic media.We are dismayed that leaders of public interest movements generally do not speak for themselves in the major media. A graphic example: the nuclear freeze campaign. Arguably the biggest grassroots movement of the decade, the freeze won virtually every time its proposal was on a ballot. Yet when the freeze was discussed on national TV or in national publications, the leaders of the movement -- many of whom were women -- rarely got to speak for themselves. Instead they were spoken for by politicians and former leaders of the military establishment.FAIR seeks to break this pattern of exclusion by dialoguing with media programmers, reporters and editors. In a democratic society, news and responsible opinion should extend beyond the perspectives of government and corporate elites.

FAIR interview about Rupert Murdoch's purchase of Dow Jones (extract)

2007-11-04T18:37:00.000+01:00

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