River

Some might remember that there is a "magic" river through the village. It only runs every six or so years, the rest of the time it's a dry ditch - you can see a photo of the bridge we use to cross it to get to Jopper's Bank to watch cricket.

Anyways. Even after all the rain (and there's not been enough for flooding or damage down here) the river is still not showing any sign of flowing! Earlier in the year it was in water as far as World's Wonder (or some such which local name) but it receded. The other night I popped out to grab a glass of refreshment at The Mermaid and almost drowned wandering up the road but still no chance of a Bishopsbourne Regatta!

Ontario bans employees using Facebook

Does just what it says at the top. This link goes to Michael Hotrum's blog and he links to a paid for service so I've mooched around and found the story on CBC Canada

Home again!

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.

In the photo I'm engaged in one of my favourite activities - opening a bottle of fizzy wine. This was to celebrate the retirement of a colleague who has spent 53 weeks at residential school since 1980. The orange tape attached to my belt has my keys on it - that way I don't lock myself out of any rooms - and the badge has a black strip behind the "Open University" wording showing that I'm staff. Student's badges are colour-coded to show the course they are studying, blue indicates SXR103.

Conference

Conference in Greenwich yesterday - I was Jacqui Bennett and helped Anna with her presentation. Gilly Salmon headlined and there was sushi on the lunch buffet. T'was a funky sort of day.

Connected me!

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.
Mildly connected academic
Unconnected academic
The connected academic Create MySpace Quizzes

CTID

Check out this page about an exhibition being held at Urbis in Manchester.

Beer....

Thai bites

So now Man City look to have a new owner and a new manager. Of course it's not as simple as that because this is Manchester City but...........

I've not been a fan of Sven in the England job but he has a great record in club management and the new owner has said there will be money for two strikers, two midfielders and a keeper - £50M? Of course the new owner (assuming he doesn't get banged up before the paperwork i sorted) is now known as "Frank" for obvious reasons.

Social networking

One of the things I've been dipping my toe in is social networking, Rheingold said in "Smart Mobs" that social networking would be the next killer app and it looks as though Facebook is the flavour riding the crest of that wave just now. Tony Hirst suggests that it might begin to look like a VLE and Martin Weller looks at what opening up the Facebook API might mean in the longer term. Anyways - I'm all Facebooked up and fascinated at the number of folk who have got themselves onto it.

Just what we were waiting for.......

Those who haven't booked their holidays yet might like to add this museum to the trip.

Need talc?

Are you able to find anything more useful?

I shall add nothing further

but if time allows I'd suggest you look at this story.

It's the future

No - not garlic bread (though garlic bread certainly is the future).

From the local press

This made me smile:

"The church bewails its tiny congregations and the village hall runs functions merely to raise funds to keep the hall going, so that it can
run functions to raise funds to keep the village hall standing; a never-ending spiral"

Sadly this is true of a lot of small villages but we all cling to an important piece of village life regardless of wider purpose. I'd be horrified if our village hall disappeared but as Malcolm states - it's difficult to see why it's there apart from as a historic monument. The porch on the village hall was paid for by Joseph Conrad so it has "real" history.

Read the rest of Malcolm's report on the parish council meeting on the Kent Online site.

Grrrr!

Damn - got a speeding ticket!

11 MPH over the limit on an urban dual-carriageway. Can't argue; I was going too fast.

Where I've been

Just spent a couple of days at HQ. James Cridland gave a kicking presentation on Tuesday morning and he copies a photo on John Naughton's blog showing the view from the back of the Berrill lecture theatre. Had a kicking time meeting folk and getting to hear some fantastic speakers laying out possible futures - wonderful way to spend some time. Had a coffee with Methel, finally met Martin Weller and bumped into a good few other people who it was good to chat with.

The earth moved for me!

Twenty past eight this morning while I was considering getting out of bed for a cup of tea the house shook. Earthquake strikes Kent! No real problems here but down the road in Folkestone there is some damage - nobody seriously injured though. Almost like living in San Francisco!

What I did yesterday

Yesterday I was mainly wearing a different gown and being presented to the Vice Chancellor and having a jolly time.

In 2005-6 3.8m children were in poverty - in homes on less than 60% of average income including housing costs.

In the developed world.
In Britain.
After the crowing over another successful year for the economy.
And this number is increasing.

Kung Fu Statesmen

Come on - you know you want to!