Blogged with Flock
A pilot whose light aircraft crash-landed in a garden in Kent has been arrested on suspicion of cultivating cannabis. Sid Clark, 47, of Tonbridge Road, Barming, near Maidstone, has been bailed pending further inquiries. The plane crashed in Lyminge on Saturday, carrying a prisoner on day release from jail.
So the story so far. Light aircraft crashes in a garden. Pilot is interviewed on TV and admits that he made a mistake in the fog and mistook some trees for a landing strip. He'd hired the plane and the owner is not a happy bunny. Oh and his passenger turns out to be a prisoner on day release from HMP Blantyre House - they were taking a day-trip across the channel........Blogged with Flock
I've been talking about Internet censorship in a few places over the last few days and here it is again - this time it looks as though Pakistan managed to pull YouTube over for an hour.
Pakistan's attempts to block access to YouTube has been blamed for an almost global blackout of the video website for more than an hour on Sunday From BBC
If electronic democracy is to succeed, however, in the face of all the obstacles, activists must do more than avoid mistakes. Those who would use computer networks as political tools must go forward and actively apply their theories to more and different kinds of communities. If there is a last good hope, a bulwark against the hyper-reality of Baudrillard or Forster, it will come from a new way of looking at technology. Instead of falling under the spell of a sales pitch, or rejecting new technologies as instruments of illusion, we need to look closely at new technologies and ask how they can help build stronger, more humane communities--and ask how they might be obstacles to that goal. The late 1990s may eventually be seen in retrospect as a narrow window of historical opportunity, when people either acted or failed to act effectively to regain control over communications technologies. Armed with knowledge, guided by a clear, human-centered vision, governed by a commitment to civil discourse, we the citizens hold the key levers at a pivotal time. What happens next is largely up to us. - http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/10.htmlI think that we, the citizens, must keep a close eye on what governments around the world are doing to try to curb our Internet access "for our own good"
Martin predicted this but the numbers are in and Facebook is losing users in the UK.
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So the curtain will finally fall on Netscape Navigator. AOL are pulling the plug on support although Netscape 9.0 will still be available for download. Those who've read the stories about the birth of the web and browser wars will understand how important Netscape has been and why its place in the history of online communication is assured - and Eric Bina was working for Netscape added the HTML tag which allows the image above to be displayed. Support stops on March 1st so take a moment to think about its passing on that day.Let it be known, once and for all: if a smart, computer-savvy 16 year old wants porn, no technical barrier will be able to stop him. This is a natural law, similar to the laws of gravity or thermodynamics.Great quote and not a bad story either. The Australian government has spent A$85M on trying to create tools to filter the Internet. Of course this was doomed to failure and when a teenager cracked the filter in half an hour they might have got the message but now the Australian government has decided that ISPs should censor what they carry. The proposal is that those who want the unfiltered version will have to contact their ISP and request it.
Blogged with Flock
"The goal of Allvoices.com is to create a global community that shares news, videos, images and opinions tied to events and people that have impact. Unlike a traditional news portal, our style of presentation creates new contexts in which stories are tied together in order to provide multiple points of view."and it looks like an interesting use of technologies to do something that couldn't otherwise be done.
Blogged with Flock
Rob Spence (cheers Rob) found Labi Siffre's blog in response to my posting the link to the song. The latest post is wonderful - art question you will never hear - check it out
Please believe me when I say that I tried to hold off from writing this post but I'm afraid I simply couldn't resist.Blogged with Flock
Maybe it's me but I found this story rather worrying.
The Ministry of Defence has expressed concerns that some wind farms interfere with military radar, making aircraft flying over the turbines "invisible".
I'm not a military strategist but announcing that our defence early warning system can't detect incoming if they navigate over wind farms does rather strike me as offering them some clues about how to stage an attack. The Thames estuary is now rife with turbines so that might offer an easy approach to the capital (not letting out many secrets here - anyone can see them from Herne Bay). In fact I would imagine that an underhand enemy might trumpet their achievements in meeting the Kyoto targets using large, floating, wind farms and actually be using aircraft carriers camouflaged with radar-defeating windmills.
I know I'm worrying unduly because the MOD have a great record in making sure that important information is held securely.
After the last guy I think the poor people across the pond deserve a change. This is the bloke I'd vote for.
60 years ago today, in New Dehli, Nathuram Godse shot and killed Mohandas K Gandhi. The Mahatma is officially known as "The Father of the Nation" in India and his creed of non-violent civil disobedience directly led to the independence of India.
Raise a glass of something non-alcoholic in his memory?
There is simply no point in having knees unless you jerk them - frequently. The latest balls from Balls is that schools should teach cooking - and it's compulsory. Sy and I used to share some office space. Suggesting we worked together would almost certainly breach all sorts of laws about accuracy; I'm not sure either of us worked but even if we did the idea that our short bursts of work-like activity coincided stretches the imagination beyond bursting point. Anyways..... Sy is a techy and now he's blogging too!
Try as I might I can't find evidence of Mr Ed Balls, Children's Secretary, spending any time at all involved in educational research. I can, however, find evidence of this story having been run ever since the invention of children.
Children should spend less time playing computer games and more time reading with their parents, the Children's Secretary Ed Balls has said. There was a danger that reading was getting pushed out by television, the internet and computer games, he warned
I can imagine parents meeting in the 15th century to complain that children should be out playing rather than reading and that Mr Caxton had a lot to answer for!
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7177045.stm)
The Conservatives are adding to protests against government plans to cut funding from students taking a second undergraduate degree.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7175513.stm)
You probably won't be too surprised to know that I'm very interested in this subject. If this proposal isn't stopped the OU stands to lose over £30M and that's going to affect everyone rather than just those students who the government think should be targeted. I've got letters from a handful of MPs - two opposing and one from Bill Rammell, Minister for Lifelong Learning, explaining that it's far fairer if they shift what is - to government - pennies and ha'pennies because it's a great vote winner with those who think that a degree is something that only rich folk can get anyway.
Ministers want professional scientists, mathematicians, information technology experts and engineers to help fill the skills gaps in classrooms.
Many of England's science teachers have not studied science to degree level.
More than 250,000 qualified teachers no longer work in England's schools, the Conservative Party says.My plan might help deal with this too.
The end of another year. Been a busy one for most of us; I've moved house and I'm still unpacking and trying to work out why I bothered shoving some of the stuff into boxes rather than straight down the tip. Mark Jopling (Historian of Kingston) wrote a great piece about one little slice of WWII and how it happened in Bishopsbourne - read it here.
Veg prepped, more food than you could shake a stick at and a handful of decorations tastefully strewn around the house. Yesterday I took a hired van and both daughters to Ikea so I now have furniture to sit on!
I hope everyone is sorted for the festivities and that you have whatever sort of day you wish yourself. Whatever you celebrate use tomorrow as a space to celebrate it.
Sara is a 3rd year undergrad in the group I work with at LCC. I was publishing from the phone to demonstrate the speed of the digital world.
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Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone
Sending this from the bar of the Llandoger Trow in Bristol. Chilly night but everyone is outside so that they can have a smoke. This building dates from 1664 and features in 'Treasure Island'.
Famous feet have trodden these worn old boards; Alexander Selkirk met Daniel Defoe here and pirates sailed from the quay outside and Gowing and Rivers wrote in green ink.
Halcyon days and 5oz rumps.
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Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone
I love this image! It's from The Guardian today and it's a waxwork model of Jonny on the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square. Whatever the result tomorrow night I think that English rugby has reason to be both proud and relieved - the team have managed to deliver despite a terrible start and appalling four years since Sydney. Go England!
Today is the 40th anniversary of the death of Dr Ernesto "Che" Guevara - his nickname came from an interjection he often used when speaking. Hero or villain his image is now an icon and many of those who recognise it know nothing of the Marxist Revolutionary who helped Castro to power in Cuba. people of my generation grew up with this image as a poster next to the girl playing tennis.
Apparently it's difficult getting a pint in Earls Court tonight - the bar staff won't stop crying.
10 years? More funds than ever before? Sixth richest country in the world? And only now are we aspiring to "world class"???
By the end of the last summer term, 246 schools were in "special measures" - the most serious category - compared to 208 at the end of summer term 2006.That's according to OFSTED and they should know.
Just been listening to a piece on the radio which has brought me to tears. It's a recording of an emergency call to Essex Ambulance service
"With the midwives stuck in traffic and his wife going into labour, Leo Hickman had to turn to the emergency services......"
It is incredible and very, very moving. To read the transcript check out Leo's article in the Guardian, to hear the tape check out the BBC site. Not covered in either is the news that the operator had only been working there for a few months and is 20 years old.
With modern economies emphasising the need for a highly-skilled, well-educated workforce, the survey shows that the UK has been relatively sluggish in its approach - with much less expansion than in countries such as South Korea, the Czech Republic and Hungary.Of course it's difficult to find any real research that supports this proposition. In fact the reason that so many Poles come to the UK is that they have a highly educated workforce, one of the best in Eastern Europe, but the economy is a basket-case.
Damning really given that this government has spent the last 10 years pumping money into projects like Aimhigher and P4P. Millions and millions of pounds - the cost of each widening participation place is incredible and the ongoing failure shows how poorly targeted these activities have been. If the money had been put into secondary schools....The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says the UK has slipped from the third highest proportion of graduates to 10th.
The survey also found that teenagers in the UK had particularly low expectations of going to university.
And here's the nub of it. This government is so hung up on the idea of "vocational higher education" that they are prepared to devalue all the other types of higher education. The much vaunted lifelong learning agenda has a rider - only if the learning is vocational. How long before they offer a degree in floor sweeping to increase the number of vocational higher education courses? New Labour's love affair with qualifications rather than learning continues and we are all paying through the nose for it.In response, Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell said: "The figures are encouraging.
"The UK has one of the highest entry rates for vocational higher education and since the higher education figures in the OECD report are from 2005 we expect to see continued increases over the coming years.
Decided to upgrade the template through blogger. I wish I could find out how to change the default font for postings though - I have to change to Verdana every time (and it's zapped the earlier posts into Arial)
The Health Committee said there was a "worrying lack of progress" and raised concerns about the security of patients' electronic records.
But the MPs also said the system - an online database of 50 million medical records to be accessed across the NHS - had huge potential to improve care.
Stunning sunset this evening - took this quick shot with the phone (it's one of a lot because I didn't want to take my eyes off the road!)
Those of a non-footy disposition might want to miss out on this one but today the Super Blues won the Manchester derby by the only goal of the game. As it says on the BBC site:"Sir Alex Ferguson's side have taken only two points from their first three games and the champions are now seven points behind City at the summit of the table."
I found this while looking for something else. It's a shot of the photo exhibition - CTID - at Urbis. Check out the full sized image.A really cool thing about having a son is that we get to go to see trains. Yesterday was scorchio so we went to Tenterden and eat ice cream and watched steam trains - full size this time.
I posted what might otherwise have been a blog post on Facebook. Not a problem but I've been wondering about why I might go there instead of here - particularly as Facebook has a different audience - one that is limited and "controlled".
Back from a week at OU Residential School. I was working as a learning adviser at the University of Sussex, looking after a group of science students. Great fun and not dissimilar to working on a holiday camp (done that so I know what I'm talking about!). It was hard work too though and I am completely cream-crackered right now, I've been asleep much of the day and now I'm trying to get the washing done.| The connected academic Your Result: Connected academic You are the future! You've taken openness, connectedness and 2.0ness to heart. You are an asset to your organisation. I would be happy to be your Facebook friend. | |
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