Business, Economics and Sociology...and other things that take my fancy...

Social media

2011-09-22T13:55:00.007+01:00

I attended a Social Media Conference at Oxford Town Hall today. For me, the main aspect was going to be the group exercise work as surely you learn by doing - probably more so than listening. This is the approach we adopt in OSL Training - involvement, involvement and more involvement. Then...review.

Unfortunately it didn't quite go like that. A lot of time was spent telling us about social media and why it shouldn't be ignored. Facebook was growing...except actually in the UK and the US it is falling.

A lot of time was also spent where the audience questioned/discussed things with the representatives from Thames Valley Police though quite why someone wanted to make the point that a 4 year prison sentence was 'too long' for someone who posted on Facebook about having a riot, is beyond me.

1pm came and, having expected to have had about 75 minutes of groupwork by then, none had happened so I decided to leave, thus missing the afternoon session which would, at best, have been 1 3/4 hrs, probably 45 minutes (as per timetable) of actual groupwork.

In terms of using social media perhaps the best thing is to try it - but be careful. With that in mind I spent a few minutes googling and came up with the following resources:

1. £10 for lots of goodies...

2. A free ebook on Twitter

3. Free ebook How to use Twitter for Business

4. Free ebook on Using Social Media for Business

5. Free ebook Twitter for Beginners

6. How To Use Twitter for Sales and Marketing (free but you have to give your email)

7. Four ebooks (free) on social media and marketing

8. A geek’s Guide To Promoting Yourself and Your Online Business in 140 Characters or Less with Twitter

9. The Twitter Guidebook

10. Using Twitter for Business

And five more....

1. How to Enhance Your Internet Presence with Social Media

This 34-page eBook by the generous and talented folks at Hubspot will help you toimprove and increase your brand’s presence on different social media networks including Twitter and Facebook. To download the eBook, you will have to provide your details and be a part of their email list. A very small price to pay for all the goodness that Hubspot offers business owners.

2. How to Monitor Your Social Media Presence in 10 Minutes a Day

Again, by the Hubspot team, this 20-page eBook is all about time management and social media. Now that you’re online and networking, learn how to optimize your social media efforts without spending hours online.

Find answers to questions like “what should I monitor and how?” Learn about tools that help you organize your social networking efforts and track them effectively.

Oh and while you’re at Hubspot, do spend some time in their treasure trove of alibrary for some totally awesome marketing resources. All FREE!

3. Why Your Blog is Your Social Media Hub by Debbie Weil

Debbie Weil is the authority in the world of business blogging and in this eBook she draws upon the experience of 32 other experts, including Seth Godin, David Meerman Scott, Guy Kawasaki and others to understand how and why a blog is actually a social media hub. The eBook is basically a compilation of what these experts had to say on the topic.

Why I find this eBook useful is that it helps a small business to understand why you need both a blog and a social media presence and how to use both effectively.

4. From Stats to Strats: Using Social Media to Plan and Measure a Strategy Campaignby Bonsai Interactive Marketing

This 27-page eBook from Bonsai Interactive Marketing is a great read for anyone wanting to use social media stats to create a smart marketing strategy.

Part one of the eBook deals with the statistics of social media (some of which may be outdated since the eBook came out in 2010) but it is the second part that is strategy or using social media stats to create a workable, effective marketing plan.

For instance, the Twitter stat sheet shows over 60% of Twitter use is outside of the US. The action step they recommend is analysing where your customers are from and if it is outside of the U.S., using Twitter to connect with them.

5. David Meerman Scott’s Library of Free eBooks

I thought of just including one of my favourites – Real Time {2010} in this list but that wouldn’t have been fair.

While some of David’s ebooks have been written in 2006 and 2008, I recommend downloading them all and reading them, front-to-back. The information and strategy in all of them will help you grow as a small business owner for sure

And five Twitter resources:

Twitip.com - A website that is an amazing resource for Twitter Tips from Twitter experts.

Mashable.com – Their Twitter Guide is second to none.

Livelearnloveleave.com – I have a popular post on how to gain free Twitter followers and how to make money with Twitter (I am almost done with a free ebook on the topic as well. I will add it to this list when it is done.)

Retweet Button – How to add the retweet button to your Word Press blog and the benefits of the retweet.

Essence of Twitter – I wrote a post called “I Tweet Therefore I am connected to you” it explains the essence of Twitter.

Here's an affiliate marketing manual...

And finally, a plug for this company.....

Save money

2011-09-18T18:00:00.001+01:00

Do you have eight gadgets when actually your mobile phone does all the same tricks in one? Do you keep CDs in your home when you own the music in other formats? Do you pay for unnecessary subscriptions when you can get the same service for free online?

If the answer to any of the above is yes, then you could be wasting money. Plenty of us no longer need many of our regular purchases and services, because we have access to alternatives.

That means we can avoid paying for them again and potentially even sell off some stuff.

Here are seven things you could do without:

Books

It's contentious, but bear with me. If you have an e-reader like the Kindle or a tablet computer then do you really ever need to buy a book again?

According to the International Data Corporation, more than 10.1 million media tablets were sold in the last three months of 2010, alongside six million e-readers. That's a lot of people who don't need to buy a real book again.

Project Gutenberg has more than 36,000 free e-books that you can download onto your computer, e-reader, tablet or even smartphone. Most of the well-known classics are available, so you can save a fortune.

It can also be much cheaper for new books. For example, I wanted to buy the latest George RR Martin novel; the newly-released hardback is priced at £25 but an electronic copy is £11.99 — less than half the price.

TV licence

Almost six in 10 Brits use the internet to watch TV, films and online video, according to a uSwitch survey. If you're one, do you still need to watch normal TV?

You don't need a TV licence to watch catch-up TV like the BBC's iPlayer and so, unless you're watching or recording a programme in real time, you do not need to pay the annual fee.

With so many people using their computers to watch programmes after they've been broadcast, for example, through 4oD, there will be plenty of people who no longer watch 'live' TV at all.

You can still use a TV set for watching DVDs and playing games, as long as it isn't installed as a TV receiver. If it is then you need a licence. You can avoid the endless letters demanding payment by notifying TV Licensing, although be aware that you'll most likely receive a visit from an inspector.

Don't forget, if you watch TV as it happens, even online, then you do need to be covered by a licence.

CDs

When I was a teenager, I had mountains of music tapes, then when I was a student I had mountains of CDs. These days I can't remember the last time I used a physical disc to play music, and the growing popularity of iTunes shows that I'm not alone.

If you're buying music online and storing it on your MP3 player or even your phone, then maybe it's time to ditch your CD collection. Move fast and you could sell them before the rest of the country goes entirely digital too.

Landline telephone

The landline is fast going the way of the dodo as individual mobile phones become the normal way to contact friends and family.

So you're potentially paying an unnecessary line rental fee, which you may think you need to get broadband in your home.

However, if you're a fairly lightweight internet user then talk to your mobile provider about whether it could be cost-effective to connect your computer to the web using your mobile — it's really very straightforward.

That also means that you can access the web wherever you are, you aren't tied to your home. Make sure your data allowance meets your needs, for example, 3 currently offers unlimited data packages.

Maps

SatNav hasn't just saved me time and effort; it's probably saved my marriage too - as a navigator on long journeys I apparently "didn't inspire confidence".

But why hang onto road maps if you're simply not going to use them?

If you don't have a SatNav yet then it's worth investigating whether or not your phone has a SatNav capacity. There are even free apps like NavFree.

Away from the car, smartphones now not only can store all the maps you need, but they also use satellite data to put a nice pin in where you are on the map and even which direction you're facing.

Calculator/personal organiser/most gadgets

Before buying any gadget, ask yourself if your mobile phone does it. Ofcom reports that more than a quarter of adults and nearly half of all teenagers own a smartphone.

If you have a high-spec phone then you can find cheap or free apps that do everything, from egg timers to pedometers, calculators and even a torch.

Newspapers

My mobile handset has internet access, meaning I can read every non-subscription newspaper online for free, so I haven't bought a physical paper in more than a year.

This doesn't just save money, it cuts down on paper waste and lets me read news and columns from more than one place, giving me a broader range of reporting and opinion.

And you can even get your phone to pull down an entire paper overnight, meaning you can read it in places without phone reception.

Is Dominik doing his homework?

2011-08-06T00:04:00.002+01:00

An interesting question. Look at his blog....here....

Then look at the homework set here.....

Then make your own decision

Using Google

2011-06-10T00:23:00.000+01:00

Advanced Search

When you're searching for specific material, use Advanced Search to plug in qualifiers that will narrow down your search. Here are more Advanced Search tricks to learn.

Search within a domain: Only let Google bring up .edu or .gov sites, for example, if you want primary sources or authoritative information.
Select file type: This very handy qualifier is useful when you need to quickly find certain types of data or information for a presentation. You can choose to limit results to .pdf, .xls, Google Earth, .doc, .rtf, and more.
: If you're looking to use open source material or unlicensed material, this is a good trick to make sure you're on track.
Exclude terms: Use a minus sign right before a word (-example) to eliminate it from your search results.
Wildcard search: The * key acts as a wildcard in Google search that can be helpful with early stages of research. Google gives the example [Obama voted * on the * bill] to learn about Obama's votes on several different bills.
Blogs: After conducting a search, click on the "Blogs" button under "Show Options" to view only blog posts on the subject.
Limit synonyms: Did you know that Google sometimes finds results that don't match your search exactly, but that use synonyms instead? Type in the + sign before a search to eliminate synonyms and use your words only.
Language: For foreign language or international business or policy classes, or if you just have to have a primary source, use this selector to change language settings.
Where your keywords show up: When you're looking for very specific information or for a specific kind of source, you can use this feature to limit where the keywords show up in your search: the URL, title of the article, in links to the page, or just anywhere in the page.
Find pages that link to the page: Use this feature when you want to do a little more digging. You'll stumble across blog posts, journal articles and news stories that offer more in-depth commentary.
Quotation marks: Put quotation marks around a phrase to let Google know you want that exact phrase in that order.

Scholar Search

Google Scholar is an excellent resource for undergraduate and graduate students who want a quick way to connect to authoritative information from journals and scholarly publications. Use these tips to search Scholar.

Search by author: Scholar recommends using the author's initials, or at least first initial and last name, to increase your results.
Search by journal: Used Scholar's Advanced Search to find articles published in a specific journal or publication.
Find articles and pieces that reference that article: By typing in the name of an article in quotation marks, you'll find that paper plus other papers that reference it.
Limit by date: Make sure you're citing the most updated research by limiting your returns by date.
Find court opinions: If you're searching for court opinions, you can search by state, choose only U.S. federal court opinions, or expand your search to all journals and opinions.
Select collections: Also in Advanced Search is the option to select collections like Chemistry and Materials Science or Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities.
Search Library Links: Under Google Scholar Preferences, you'll find the option to find library access links.
Start with citations, then move offline: Sometimes Google will pull up a citation but not the whole piece because it hasn't found it online. If it looks like a good match for your research, copy it down and bring it to your librarian for help locating it.
Find foreign language journals: Look for primary materials from foreign language journals in Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Spanish and more.
Bibliography Manager: Bibliography Manager is a Scholar feature that lets you add citations in various formats like RefWorks, RefMan, EndNote, and BibTeX. This is found in the Preferences section.

Reference Tools and Tips

Google is full of tricks for pulling up statistics, basic facts and reference material. Check here for great shortcuts for finding definitions and more.

Dictionary: Type the word "define" before the word you want to look up in the Google search bar.
Calculator: Just type in an equation with the = sign to use Google's calculator feature. You can find more calculator operators and symbols here.
Books: Click on the "Books" option under "Shop Options" after entering your search. You'll find Google books on the subject, and can quickly add them to your library or preview them.
Unit conversion: Let Google complete unit conversions for you when you type in a problem, like "4 lbs in kg."
Cooking conversions: When you're trying out mom's recipes at school, use this feature to solve cooking conversions.
Numeric ranges: If you want to know who was president during a certain timeframe, type in "president 1940…1950" for example. You can also use this feature to find results that contain certain dollar amounts or other numerical ranges.
Stock Quotes: For business classes, you can use the Stock Quotes search by typing in the ticker symbol. Google will bring up current stock quotes.
Glossary: Type in a word followed by ~glossary to find glossaries, term lists and dictionary entries for that word.
Package tracking: Find out when your next care package arrives when you use this feature.
Public data: Look up public data by typing in keywords and a location, like "population california."
Area Code Lookup: This feature should be useful when applying for jobs or looking for places to visit in your area for research.
Froogle: Whether you're shopping for the best deal or are conducting market research for a project, use Google's product search tool, Froogle.

Notes and Organization

Keep your research organized with these tricks.

Search within a site: Type "example search term site: example website" to search a keyword or search term within that site only, if you need to use a particular source.
SearchWiki: Use SearchWiki to star and edit your favorite results, even hidden ones.
info:: Find information about a website if you need to verify it or collect data for a citation.
Custom Search Engine: Create your own custom search engine with Google. You can name it, pick the language, and select only certain sites to be searched.
Learn how to assess credibility: This slide explains how to check a page's "about" section, find a date and author, and verify the author's credentials on Google.
Google Toolbar: Great for study groups, this toolbar lets you share websites with friends and translate web pages.
Pay attention to Google's indents: Google indents results when they're from the same website as the result above it.

Social and New Media Search

Google is a great tool for finding images, toying around with new media, and locating and connecting with people online. Here are some Google tips to help you maximize Google's cutting edge potential.

Google Maps eye-level perspective: Once you've searched for a particular map, drag the little person icon (located at the top of the zoom in/zoom out bar) anywhere on the map to get an eye-level perspective.
Google Groups: When you want to pull up information from Google Groups only, you can type in the author's name, group name or insubject: and the subject keyword.
Updates: After conducting a search, click on the "Updates" button under "Show Options." You'll get a steady stream of the most updated social media comments about that topic. Clicking "Discussions" will take you to forums Q&A pages.
Google Image Search: You probably know how to use image search, but did you know it's a useful way to ID people and look up foreign language definitions?
Knol: While it may not be the most authoritative search tool, Knol can help you start your research and find out how others around the world are reacting to current events and popular discussion topics.
Recognize faces: Follow this link for instructions on how to get Google to recognize faces, and not bring up other image results when you type in someone's name.

Shortcuts

Use these shortcuts to make your Google searches even faster.

I'm Feeling Lucky: If you're an expert searcher, use this button on the Google search page to get automatically directed to the first web page that would normally show up in a list in a general search.
"Better than" and "reminds me of": This weird little tip will help you find comparisons. Just type in either search term and then a keyword, all enclosed in quotation marks.
cache:: Use this shortcut to show a web page in its cached version.
related:: Type in a website after related: to find related sites.
Shortcut for spellcheck: Don't bother going to a dictionary website to see if you spelled something correctly: just enter it into Google's search bar, and the "did you mean…" suggestion will pop up with the correct spelling.
Google Blog Search: Blog Search is another quick way to jump to blog posts only.
Set up iGoogle: Personalize your Google homepage so that it contains links to your favorite feeds and research pages.

Miscellaneous

From looking for jobs to understanding case sensitivity, here are more Google tricks for students.

Google Job Directory: Use this tool to look for job opportunities, including seasonal jobs and job fairs.
Delete search history: You can clear your address bar history, Google Toolbar history, and Google search box history here.
Search operators are case sensitive: Google isn't case sensitive when it reads your keywords, but operators like OR are.

Amazon

2011-05-12T20:19:00.000+01:00

New Tool! Amazon Secret Discounts Finder
Swiftly builds SUPER-SPECIFIC pages of Amazon's hidden 75%+ OFF deals inc. DVDs, beauty, cameras
As we've been blown away by the popularity of the Amazon secret bargain basement pages, we've built a new tool to take it to the next level. What is Amazon's secret bargain basement? It's where we've (legitimately) manipulated its web links to display all 75%-99% OFF bargains in its 20 main sections like DVDs*, Video Games* and Clothing*. New Amazon Discount Finder Tool: This new tool allows you to create your own super-specific sub-department pages in seconds. You then choose the discount level and if you want free deliery, so it could be engagement rings 90%+ off*, childrens books 75%+ off* or Nintendo Wii games 50%+ off * and scores more. Try the New Tool & Guide: Amazon Hidden Discount Finder Related: Cheap Online Shopping, Mega shopping comparison, Ebay Buying Tricks

Slobstopper

2011-05-12T01:19:00.000+01:00

Osama

2011-05-03T02:42:00.001+01:00

Cheap flights

2011-05-01T23:07:00.000+01:00

Don't do drugs!

2011-04-28T12:17:00.003+01:00

You can go from this (shot in 2009):

to this:

by 2011.

Cho Việt Nam được một w.o.s.

2011-04-27T08:52:00.004+01:00

Geert Hofstede (1928): I am a Dutch social psychologist who did a pioneering study of cultures across modern nations. If you want to know what's on my mind at present, click on my photo. Read more under "culture". See under "Geert" for what was on my mind before, and for my CV.

Dr. Geert Hofstede conducted perhaps the most comprehensive study of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture. From 1967 to 1973, while working at IBM as a psychologist, he collected and analyzed data from over 100,000 individuals from forty countries. From those results, and later additions, Hofstede developed a model that identifies four primary dimensions to differentiate cultures. He later added a fifth dimension, Long-term Outlook.

As with any generalized study, the results may or may not be applicable to specific individuals or events. In addition, although the Hofstede's results are categorized by country, often there is more than one cultural group within that country. In these cases there may be significant deviation from the study's result. An example is Canada, where the majority of English speaking population and the minority French speaking population in Quebec has moderate cultural differences.

National cultures can be described according to the analysis of Geert Hofstede. These ideas were first based on a large research project into national culture differences across subsidiaries of a multinational corporation (IBM) in 64 countries. Subsequent studies by others covered students in 23 countries, elites in 19 countries, commercial airline pilots in 23 countries, up-market consumers in 15 countries, and civil service managers in 14 countries. Together these studies identified and validated four independent dimensions of national culture differences, with a fifth dimension added later.

If you follow the links below you will find a map of the world for each cultural dimension, which enables you to quickly see how similar or different countries or regions are.

• Power Distance
• Individualism
• Masculinity
• Uncertainty Avoidance
• Long-Term Orientation

The drawbacks of applying the Hofstede Model

The Hofstede Model of Cultural Dimensions can be of great use when it comes to analyzing a country’s culture. There are however a few things one has to keep in mind.

Firstly, the averages of a country do not relate to individuals of that country. Even though this model has proven to be quite often correct when applied to the general population, one must be aware that not all individuals or even regions with subcultures fit into the mould. It is to be used as a guide to understanding the difference in culture between countries, not as law set in stone. As always, there are exceptions to the rule.

Secondly, how accurate is the data? The data has been collected through questionniares, which have their own limitations. Not only that, but in some cultures the context of the question asked is as important as its content. Especially in group-oriented cultures, individuals might tend to answer questions as if they were addressed to the group he/she belongs to. While on the other hand in the United States, which is an individualistic culture, the answers will most likely be answered and perceived through the eyes of that individual.

Lastly, is the data up to date? How much does the culture of a country change over time, either by internal or external influences?

Corporate and Social Responsibility:

An important new report on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
BUSS4 - Research Theme for 2011 - CSR
Corporate Social Responsibility priority? Increase profits…
CSR - Apple audits the supply chain
CSR - Avoiding the child labour hotspots
CSR - BBC One Planet on Coca-Cola & Sustainability
CSR - Branson, Paphitis and Meaden Turn into Eco Warriors
CSR - Charities hit by corporate stinginess
CSR - Comic Relief, Crisps and Cause-Related Marketing
CSR - Cooperative Group invites you to join a revolution
CSR - Costing the Earth & Reporting Sustainability
CSR - Focus on Fairtrade Fortnight 2011
CSR - Greed is Good
CSR - Green Growth Case Studies from UK Businesses
CSR - How Companies Avoid Paying Tax
CSR - How Transparent are the World’s Oil Companies?
CSR - keeping a CCTV eye on suppliers
CSR - Lesson Video - Clips from Blood Sweat and T-Shirts
CSR - Lesson Video: Child Labour in Bangladesh
CSR - Lesson Video: Primark on the Rack
CSR - Links to PLC Corporate Social Responsibility Reports
CSR - McDonalds and the Case for the Defence
CSR - Michael Porter speaks on Creating Shared Value
CSR - Pepsico Performance with Purpose
CSR - pressure group forces a change at PG Tips
CSR - Project Shakti
CSR - Salad Slaves - Supermarkets and Corporate Irresponsibility?
CSR - The Classic Milton Friedman Clip
CSR - the Essential Economist Podcast
CSR - The Key UK CSR Organisations
CSR - The Mega Dairy, Economies of Scale and Cornflakes
CSR - The Word Cloud
CSR - What is “Creating Shared Value”?
CSR - What is going on at 250-266 Ecclesall Road?
CSR and Fairtrade Fortnight
CSR at the Movies - Black Gold
CSR at the Movies - Capitalism a Love Story
CSR at the Movies - Food, Inc.
CSR at the Movies - Manufactured Landscapes
CSR at the Movies - Supersize Me in 7 Minutes
CSR at the Movies - Thank You for Smoking
CSR at the Movies - The End of the Line
CSR at the Movies - Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price
CSR becomes the Strategy for Co-operative
CSR Video - Business Benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility
CSR Video - Everyone’s talking Corporate Social Responsibility
Michael Porter - Shared Value and the Limitations of CSR
Revision Presentation - Corporate Social Responsibility
Stunning Video - CSR, Ethics and Milton Friedman
The recession as an opportunity for Corporate Social Responsibility?

Never buy these online

2011-02-24T02:04:00.001Z

Here are seven things you should never buy online:

1) Secondhand cars

Whether you want a brand new car or a secondhand model, researching the price you should pay online is a good idea. But never hand over money online.

Many scammers offer secondhand cars in online forums at fantastic prices but will take your money and run. Always test-drive a car before buying it — and if an offer looks too good to be true, remember: it probably is.

2) A property valuation

Property site Hometrack will offer to sell you an online valuation of your property for 'only £19.95'. But you can find out a lot of information about a property for free, just by surfing the web.

You can find out the price it was last sold for and what's happened to house prices since then. You can find out how much crime there is nearby and how good the schools are.

You can even find out what newspapers the neighbours read and how much they earn via upmystreet.com, as well heaps of other fascinating neighbourhood statistics from neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk.

And most importantly, you can get a free online estimate of your property's value from Zoopla.com!

3) Books

It's true that it's often cheaper to buy a book online rather than in a store, especially now Amazon has stopped charging for delivery. But if you're going online anyway, why buy a book at all when you can swap one you no longer want and get it for free instead?

There are two big free book swap sites out there: bookmooch.com (which is international) and readitswapit.co.uk (which is UK-based). Both have literally hundreds of thousands of books available for free.

Alternatively, if you've got an ebook reader, head over to Project Gutenberg and download thousands of works of literature for free.

4) Newspaper subscriptions

The Financial Times, The News of The World, The Sunday Times and The Times now charge you if you want full access to all their content online. But on the Yahoo! front page, you can read the biggest stories from a wide range of different publications, including The Telegraph and The Press Association, entirely for free.

Similarly, The Guardian and the BBC offer their content for free. And of course, if you want personal finance stories, you can read all the content at lovemoney.com and you won't be charged a penny!

5) Last-minute presents

Anyone caught out by the snow last Christmas can vouch for this one: never, ever, ever buy last-minute presents online.

Could you face having to tell someone you care about that you're empty-handed on their birthday because you couldn't be bothered to order their present enough in advance to ensure it arrives on time? The fact that everyone knows it's often cheaper and less effort to buy stuff online can be pretty embarrassing in this situation.

To avoid this, most of us get desperate waiting for our deliveries to arrive and end up rushing to the shops to buy a replacement gift.

And that's where it starts to get costly. Buy the same present, probably at a higher price, and you'll have to return the one you bought online and pay delivery costs. Or, alternatively, we hope it arrives on time but splash out on something 'extra' just in case.

Either way, we end up forking out more than we would have done if we hadn't tried to buy it online in the first place!

The fact is, if you've left it to the last-minute — even if the website promises next day delivery - don't risk it. Head to the shops and get it safely home!

6) Cheap 'designer' goods

The reason designer goods are expensive is because you pay for the designer brand. If you spy a pair of designer shoes or sunglasses that look suspiciously cheap, then you should be just that: suspicious.

The same goes for handbags. It's no good knowing how to spot a fake in the flesh when you're buying online; here, the biggest clue is the price it's been sold for. (You can also do a domain check to see which company the site is registered to.)

7) Anything that's expensive to deliver

Finally, here's a general rule-of-thumb to follow when you're unsure whether or not to buy something online.

One of the great things about shopping online is that you are protected by Distance Selling Regulations. This means, if you change your mind, you have the legal right to return the item and get a full refund. If you buy it in a shop, however, you are only legally entitled to a full refund if the item turns out to be faulty.

The trouble is, you are not entitled to claim back the cost of delivery. So if an item is expensive to deliver and equally expensive to return, you will end up seriously out of pocket.

Moral of the story: avoid buying anything online that you're not sure you want, if it's expensive to delive

Questions

2011-02-15T23:20:00.001Z

1. How can we induce people to look after their health?

2. How do societies create effective and resilient institutions, such as governments?

3. How can humanity increase its collective wisdom?

4. How do we reduce the ‘skill gap’ between black and white people in the UK?

5. How can we aggregate information possessed by individuals to make the best decisions?

6. How can we understand the human capacity to create and articulate knowledge?

7. Why do so many female workers still earn less than male workers?

8. How and why does the ‘social’ become ‘biological’?

9. How can we be robust against ‘black swans’ — rare events that have extreme consequences?

10. Why do social processes, in particular civil violence, either persist over time or suddenly change?

Trends

2011-01-01T13:28:00.001Z

11 crucial consumer trends of 2011

1. Random Acts of Kindness
Trendwatching.com believes that as people become willing disclose more about their private lives via social mediums such as twitter or facebook, brands will attempt to relate to consumers' craving for realness and engage customers by randomly sending them surprise gifts.

2. Urbanomics
With increasing proportions of the world's population living in urban areas, brands will attempt to engage urban consumers, who are believed to be more liberal, tolerant and daring, by targeting products at specific cities rather than countries.

3. Pricing Pandemonium
The rise of group buying sites such as Groupon and the continuing growth of instant communication means that news of new deals can spread quickly throughout social networks, giving rise to brands targeting consumers through flash sales and increasingly limited offers.

4. Made for China (if not BRIC)
Trendwatching.com believes that the continued economic growth of developing countries such as China and Brazil will lead to brands targeting products specifically towards consumers in these countries, altering the product to accommodate different physical features, traditions or lifestyles.

5. Online status symbols
The continued rise in importance of online status symbols will see brands offering consumers an increased variety of online symbols to display on social networking sites and the rise of status symbols that bridge the divide between the online and real worlds similar to the personalized Facebook memorabilia currently available.

6. Wellthy
Trendwatching.com believes that good health is now as important to consumers as having the newest status symbol. As a result in 2011 consumers will spend more on health products and services and expect these goods not only to treat illnesses but to actually improve their quality of life.

7. Social-Lites and Twinsumers
Consumers in 2011 will rely more on person to person recommendations. This is mainly due to the rise of "twinsumers" - consumers who share similar likes and dislikes and are valuable sources of product recommendations - and "Social-Lites" - consumers who discover new products and broadcast these experiences to their social network.

8. Emerging Generosity
In 2011 consumers will expect wealthy individuals and brands from emerging countries - particularly China - to give, donate and sympathize rather than just sell and take. Brands engaging in this behavior are more likely to have a positive consumer image, as statistics from trendwatching.com show that 86 percent of consumers believe businesses should place equal weight on society's interests and business interests.

9. Planned Spontaneity
With increasingly fragmented lifestyles, instant communication tools and a willingness to publicize personal locations, consumers in 2011 will be signing up to services that allow endless and effortless meetings with friends, families or strangers and even offer suggestions such as where to go, who to meet with and what to do.

10. Eco Superior
As more and more consumers are buying or considering buying green products, 2011 will see companies switch from marketing the environmental benefits of their products to a niche group to taking on the traditional market. The eco-products of 2011 will be superior to their polluting alternatives and be marketed in a way that will appeal to eco-skeptics as well as environmentalists.

11. Owner-Less
Trendwatching.com predicts that 2011 will be the year when leasing and sharing schemes cross over into the mainstream consciousness. Big brands such as car manufacturers will begin to compete with independent car pooling clubs like Zipcar, and local authorities will also get in on the action with a rise in the number of schemes similar to Autolib - the electric-car sharing scheme due to be launched in Paris in 2011.

Source: www.trendwatching.com. One of the world's leading trend firms, trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefings to more than 160,000 subscribers worldwide.

Seasonal greetings

2010-12-28T21:52:00.001Z

On leaving EF....

2010-11-28T20:33:00.001Z

.....some people still are unable to afford their drugs....

Film

2010-11-21T18:02:00.001Z

The Village that Made the Film - Tortoise in Love from Conrad Weiskrantz on Vimeo.

Changing behaviour

2010-11-18T10:55:00.000Z

Your brain is the driving force behind every thought, memory, emotion and behaviour that you have ever had, or will ever have, throughout your life. I guess that makes it worth understanding a bit about how it works both for and against you. There’s one golden nugget of knowledge about your brain that you can use to change the way you choose to respond in difficult situations. So what’s the secret?

Brains are extremely complex networks of rather simple cells – your neurones. Neurones create complex networks in the brain that take in new information, interpret it in light of previous information, and then store the new learning in the network. The neurones that do this are microscopically small, and there are 10,000,000,000 of them! Each of these can make connections (synapses) with hundreds of other neurones. You therefore might imagine that setting up this array of inter-connections is a complex task, yet we know that the first phase of this process takes only 9 months for humans since babies are born with functional brains.

The master plan for designing these complex networks of neurones happens in two stages: the first stage involves setting up a preliminary network that is common across most people. We use genes to determine how to connect up this first network. And, to give the first network a bit of an extra boost, the genetic code constructs twice as many neural connections as we actually need. When each baby is born, his or her experiences are stored in this network. Connections that are used within an individual brain are strengthened while unused connections disappear over about the first 3 years of life. This first process of overproduction and elimination of connections is used to learn about events that can be expected on the basis of our common evolution. For example, most of us will see light, and colour, we will feel hard and soft, rough and smooth surfaces, and we will feel pain, we will hear soft sounds and loud sounds, high sounds and low sounds and, for humans, we will hear language. All of these new experiences are unconsciously stored by keeping connections that have been previously created in anticipation of these events.

If this was the only way that new information could be stored in our brains, then adults would not be able to learn new information or to create new ideas. So there has to be a second mechanism: This is where we create new connections as they are needed. When we hear language, we cannot know if it is going to be English or French or Japanese. The brain creates new networks to store the language it hears. Each new word will be stored in a new connection, which will connect with lots of other words stored in other connections in a complex network of information. Just to demonstrate this, I would like you to think about grass. Take a moment and create a really strong image of grass. Now – what else is in that image? My image is of a meadow of grass, and I can see poppies in the meadow too. There might even be sheep or cows grazing. Your image is likely to be completely different from mine. Each of the other details in the image that you have created is there because of the interconnections that have been made unconsciously and effortlessly in your brain to represent your memory of grass. And these will be different for every one of us! While this learning happened unconsciously, it can be compared with something that you worked hard to learn either at school or as part of your business. In this case, you considered it important enough to learn this new material that you consciously worked to create new connections.

How can understanding these two processes change the way you behave? The secret comes from the consequences of this design! I’d like you to think back to a strong, childhood memory. For me, it is walking across beautiful heather clad hills on the west coast of Scotland at sunset. I did not choose to remember this, and I have forgotten most of the other things that happened around this time. I know, however, that many of my current behaviours must arise from experiences that took place during my childhood. This inability to remember events from our early life helps to demonstrate how many of our responses are completely unconscious and routed in the unremembered past. As a result, most of these behaviours will never have been subjected to conscious reflection, or consciously chosen as behaviours that are useful and that we want to keep.

An example of one of my unconscious, unwanted responses is the behaviour that I fall into whenever my mother is present. Through no fault of hers, I revert to being a child when she is around. I never lose my keys and get locked out of the house – except when my mother is present. I never burn the dinner – except when my mother is present. Something about my mother’s presence activates behaviours that I really do not want or need! This happens because many of my competencies were not developed until after I left home (I had a fantastic mother who stayed home and looked after me and my sisters!) So, I need make a conscious effort to be competent to prevent me from reverting to incompetent behaviours that I find extremely frustrating. I know that behaviours are coded in connections in my brain, and that I can make new connections consciously when I want (with a bit of effort to make sure I change the behaviour regularly and consistently), so I know that I can choose NOT to do the things that frustrates me so much.

This is true of any response that we have that doesn’t help us. We can choose to develop a new network of connections to use for this situation, and thus change the behaviour.

If you want to make use of this idea, what might be useful to remember is:

All our behaviours are coded in neural circuits and synapses
Many of our responses to situations were coded unconsciously – especially when we were young and in the early stages of brain development
Not all of these continue to suit us
Adults can make new connections too
By creating new connections and networks, we can replace inappropriate responses with new responses that are much more useful!

Call to action

What inappropriate behaviours do you have that have been coded as unconscious responses to particular situations? What responses would suit you better? When would now be a good time to change them?

Think of 2 or 3 responses that you have that you would like to change. Choose a new response that would be more appropriate for the situation. Practice using the new response as often as you can. Don’t worry if you occasionally fall back to the old response – the network you are using is pretty hard wired and it will take a bit of time, and lots of practice, to make the new network equally accessible and easy to use. If you persist in the new behaviour, you will find that the old response is completely replaced by the new one.

Source: Kaizen Training

Profit from food inflation

2010-10-16T16:04:00.000+01:00

The price of fish has increased 8pc in the past year Photo: CHRISTOPHER JONES

Record increases in the price of food have kept the rate of inflation above 3pc – despite falls in petrol, clothing and financial services. The average household will be hit hard and, although many branded goods companies have been able to absorb rising input costs, basics have increased dramatically, according to our own measure of inflation, the Real Cost of Living Index.

The latest figures from the official Consumer Price Index show the extent of food inflation over the past year. Fruit prices have risen by 10pc, fish is up 8pc, vegetables 5pc, while bread and cereal prices have risen by 3pc.

Investors interested in balancing their books should look to harvest profit from the price increases (although the usual caveats of getting advice apply). Here are 10 ideas to get you started.

1 AGRICULTURE ETFs

Although an agriculture exchange-traded fund (ETF) can be volatile, increased scarcity of land and a growing global population mean that over the long term experts expect food prices to rise. “This aggressive soft commodity inflation is due to the transient nature of climatic harvests,” said Jeremy Batstone-Carr, from stockbrokers Charles Stanley.

“Fires in Russia and extreme weather conditions in Asia have meant an extremely poor harvest. I believe prices will go down in the short term, but we won’t see previous lows again.”

ETFs are funds that can be traded on the stock market. Their underlying assets mirror a particular index or sector, in this case agriculture stocks, the largest weightings being soy beans, corn and wheat. Since the beginning of June the price has increased from $5.50 to $6.78 now.

As ETFs are listed on the stock exchange, they have a price that changes daily. More information is available at www.londonstockexchange.com.

2 TESCO

Britain’s biggest supermarket has long ceased to be solely a greengrocer. The only British supermarket with a global presence, it has operations in the United States, Korea and China, to name a few. Tesco also offers financial services, petrol and its “Direct” website, where you can buy own-brand and big name electricals, furnishings and toys. The sheer size of the Tesco empire means that it is well positioned to absorb any increases in input costs.

Share price: £4.05

3 ECLECTICA AGRICULTURE FUND

Eclectica’s fund was the first of its kind when it launched in 2007 and it still leads the pack despite a volatile year – if you had invested £1,000 in the fund a year ago it would now be worth £1,147. The fund’s three-year performance figure is less impressive, a fall of 5pc, but the FTSE lost 13pc in the same period.

Eclectica’s remit is restrictive – it invests only in the agriculture sector’s “inputs”, such as corn, grain and fertiliser – and this makes for a volatile fund, advisers say.

Meera Patel of Hargreaves Lansdown said: “We do tip this fund but because it only invests in agricultural inputs it can be very changeable. Last year, for example, there was a good corn harvest, with plentiful supply, which pushed the price down.”

4 UNILEVER

The consumer goods giant owns big name brands such as Ben & Jerry’s, Flora, Hellmann’s, PG Tips and Knorr. Mr Batstone-Carr said: “Unilever’s appeal lies in its global diversity. Half of its revenue comes from emerging markets, and these aspirational people are spenders not savers,” he said.

Unilever does not just produce food products either.

“This country is an ageing population, and though we are counting the pennies over food, people continue to spend on anti-ageing and beauty products, which Unilever produce.”

Share price: £17.02

5 MORRISONS

Although considerably smaller than Tesco, valued at £7.6bn against Tesco’s £32.5bn, Wm Morrison can more easily absorb costs than a food manufacturer.

Jonathan Jackson, head of equities for stockbrokers Killik & Co, said that while a bread maker would struggle if wheat went up, supermarkets had pricing power. Keeping prices low will keep customers happy and the supermarkets will be rewarded with consumer loyalty.

Share price: £2.86

6 ABERDEEN EMERGING MARKETS FUND

“This is an emerging markets story,” said Mark Dampier of Hargreaves Lansdown. “The continued urbanisation of the developing world will lead to further pressures on the agricultural sector.”

As standards of living improve in areas such as Asia, so do diet aspirations. The growing middle classes eat more meat, which puts more pressure on crops as the volume of crops required to feed a cow is far greater than the amount needed for crop production for human consumption.

“Eighty-five per cent of the planet’s population is bettering themselves, and with that comes the desire to have the same diet as us. The thought of that is terrifying – there simply isn’t enough food to go around,” Mr Dampier said.

7 SAINSBURY’S

The past couple of months have seen boardroom changes at J Sainsbury. A new development director has helped Sainsbury’s focus on its goals – long-term growth and expansion. Last summer, the supermarket chain announced that it would open 2.5 million sq ft of extra space by March 2011, amounting to 7.5pc growth a year. Sainsbury’s also plans to expand its financial services.

Share price: £3.55

8 ASSOCIATED BRITISH FOODS

People who previously picked up their weekly shop from high-end supermarkets are now frequenting cut-price retailers such as Lidl and Aldi. Demand for own-brand products has also grown, which is where a manufacturer such as ABF could prosper. “Food retailers are approaching supermarkets to offer to manufacture own-brand products that aren’t of substandard quality,” Mr Batstone-Carr said. “If you do not make the number one product in the market, and feel that you have little chance of closing the gap, it’s a more business-savvy option to diversify.”

Share price: £10.23

9 SARASIN AGRISAR FUND

Sarasin invests in the agricultural supply chain: from machinery to supermarkets, including fertiliser producers, irrigation developers and salmon farming. Because of this diversity, the fund is considerably less volatile than Eclectica’s, although you may miss out on large soft-commodity surges. “We would recommend Sarasin’s fund to someone looking to agriculture for the first time,” Ms Patel said. In the past year it has returned 14.5pc.

10 LANDKOM

This Aim-listed company owns land in Ukraine that yields many wheat and some rapeseed crops. Unaffected by the recent fires in Russia and poised to benefit from its neighbour’s export restrictions, this company is high risk but has the potential for high returns. The company’s largest shareholders are Invesco Perpetual and JP Morgan, and the share price has picked up in the last quarter with wheat prices.

Share price: 9.75p

Source: Telegraph

Danger!

2010-10-06T13:59:00.002+01:00

Happy Classroom

2010-10-03T11:17:00.001+01:00

Hands up who knows one of the most common, time-honoured and, it is now being argued, detrimental teaching methods used in schools? That's right, person bobbing up and down excitedly, waving your digits in the air. It's the hands-up habit itself.

Apparently it is the same minority of top pupils, usually sitting at the front, who raise their hands to answer questions, while the majority switch off and opt out. According to the education expert Professor Dylan Wiliam, this ingrained, almost sacrosanct, classroom habit is widening the achievement gap in our schools. "Only a quarter of pupils consistently put their hands up," he says. "They can't wait to take part, while others switch off completely."

Some sort of randomisation process is required, Wiliam long ago decided, and his unorthodox solution, as demonstrated in a new BBC2 series, The Classroom Experiment (part of the channel's very welcome School Season of programmes), is to write the pupils' names down on lollipop sticks, the teacher then pulling them at random from a pot. No one can hide – everyone is potentially in the firing line.

The lollipop sticks form just one of six radical, but lo-tech, ideas (see box, right) that Wiliam was licensed to unleash on a mixed-ability class of 12- to 13-year-olds at an average Hertfordshire comprehensive, Hertswood School in Borehamwood, over the course of one summer term. The aim was to involve every pupil in the lesson. "Our education system was designed to cater for everyone, regardless of background or ability, but we still seem to struggle to keep everyone engaged," Wiliam says.

A former maths and science teacher turned teacher-trainer, Wiliam, along with Paul Black, wrote the seminal book on classroom assessment, Inside the Black Box. And as (until recently) the deputy director of the University of London's Institute of Education, Wiliam has had the ear of governments. His vast experience of teaching methods (he also spent three years in the United States) make him rather more expert in the field than, say, Gareth Malone – the choirmaster recently seen on BBC2 attempting to improve literacy levels in male primary school boys.

"The programme is a crystallisation of things I've been doing for a long while," Wiliam says. "When Paul Black and I worked with teachers in Oxfordshire and Kent in the late 1990s, we realised that research was presented to teachers in the form of bland platitudes... they were just too general to be applied in real classroom settings."

Hence the lollipop sticks. Oh, and the traffic light cups. The latter are painted red, amber and green (obviously) – students then put a cup on their desk to inform the teacher whether they understand what they have just been taught (green), whether they are uncertain (amber), or whether they haven't the foggiest (red). It's all very lo-tech and, importantly in these straitened economic times, low-budget.

"People are always pushing new technology and expensive ways of raising students' achievement, but the fact is that this is something that every school could do if it was minded to," he says. A further innovation – small, hand-held whiteboards for each student – came as a direct result of an unforeseen problem with the lollipop sticks. For deprived of the chance to show off their brilliance in front of the class, the regular hands-up brigade were getting frustrated, and had even started to become disruptive.

"The high-achieving girls were really struggling," Wiliam says. "They're used to being in the limelight, and that's causing them some pain." And what's more, used to putting their hands up only when they knew the answer (which was, admittedly, much of the time), the random lollipop method was putting some of the high achievers into the unaccustomed position of sometimes not knowing the answer.

"It's kind of embarrassing, because I've got this reputation for being smart", says one, Emily, after she has been caught out marking her disapproval by furtively removing her lollipop from the pot. Anyway, the idea with the mini-whiteboards is that the whole class simultaneously scribbles their answers before displaying their boards to the teacher – and each other.

"I think mini-whiteboards are the greatest development in education since the slate," Wiliam says. "You can get an overall view of what the whole class think." And once they got used to using them, the students in the film also approved – except the dissident who wrote "can't be arsed" on his. "I want a classroom culture where it's OK not to know the answer," Wiliam says.

Another innovation illustrated in The Classroom Experiment isn't in itself radical – even if its actual implementation in state schools would be something of a revolution – and that is getting the students to come to school 15 minutes early each morning for a PE lesson. Indeed, a growing body of research in the US shows that a short burst of exercise every morning can have an impact on students' attention and learning throughout the day.

But getting students into school by 8.30am, and changed into their gym kit, is going to be a walk in the park compared with another part of our current education system that Wiliam wants to change – and that is schools' (and therefore pupils') obsession with grades. "I don't get it unless I see my grade," says one frustrated pupil, thus illustrating Wiliam's point. The professor's own mantra is "comments, not grades".

"We're a nation hooked on grades and national curriculum levels," Wiliam says. "Kids don't work for things unless they get levels in them. It's absolutely crazy – we're like drug-pushers... we've got our kids hooked on levels and it's going to be very hard to get them off."

So much for the students. But if Wiliam's innovations are to succeed, they need to be applied with vigour, imagination and consistency by the teachers – and, as Wiliam well knows, teachers often feel they know best.

"Most teachers teach these lessons and they think the students understand it, and therefore they don't want to know that it didn't work... it's almost ostrich-like behaviour. What many of these techniques reveal is that despite your brilliant lesson, the kids didn't get it – and I think every teacher should want to know about that."

Indeed, one of the most interesting sections of an interesting series concerns the maths teacher, Miss Obi, whose somewhat inconsistent application of the new methods is leading to chaotic lessons and frustrated teacher and pupils. Wiliam takes Miss Obi aside, and persuades her to have her lesson assessed by two of her less high-achieving pupils, Katie and Sid, who are both visibly empowered by the process. "She took it on board quite well," Sid reckons, while realising, perhaps for the first time, that "it must be quite hard being a teacher".

"One of the greatest resources is untapped – the students themselves," Wiliam says. "I don't think teachers should be afraid of asking the students for advice." The idea is controversial, however, some believing it undermines the professionalism and authority of teachers. Not so the head at Hertswood, who, starting this academic year, has decided to unroll all Wiliam's innovations across the entire school.

Wiliam himself thinks that his simple and effective – if teachers persist, that is – ideas could be unrolled into every single one of the nation's 300,000 classrooms – and that lollipop sticks and traffic light cups could eventually be as ubiquitous as chalk and blackboards were in earlier times. "It's scalable across the whole country, and it doesn't require people like me to come in just to keep the change going."

And what about those bright things who were always the first to put their hands in the air? "I listen more," says Emily, previously dismissive of her less engaged classmates. "People are smarter than I thought."

'The Classroom Experiment' begins on BBC2 on Monday 27 September

Something we can all learn from: how to improve teaching techniques

* Stop students putting their hands up to ask questions – it's the same ones doing it all the time. Instead introduce a random method of choosing which pupil answers the question, such as lollipop sticks, and thus engage the whole class.

* Use traffic-light cups in order to assess quickly and easily how much your students understand your lesson. If several desks are displaying a red cup, gather all those students around to help them at the same time.

* Mini-whiteboards, on which the whole class simultaneously writes down the answer to a question, are a quick way of gauging whether the class as a whole is getting your lesson. This method also satisfies the high-achievers who would normally stick their hands up.

* A short burst of physical exercise at the start of the school day will do wonders for students' alertness and motivation. As any gym addict or jogger will tell you, it's all about the chemicals released into the brain.

* Ditch the obsession with grades, so that pupils can concentrate instead on the comments that the teacher has written on written classwork.

* Allow students to assess the teachers' teaching – they are the ones at the sharp end, after all. Letting pupils have a say is empowering and, if handled constructively, is highly enlightening.

I've been saying this for years

2010-09-17T10:21:00.000+01:00

Dumbing down

The best product to help you pass your A levels is...

2010-09-09T22:15:00.000+01:00

...this

This is Britain

2010-09-05T18:36:00.001+01:00

And this too...

Aims....

2010-09-03T04:06:00.001+01:00

Fogg, a Fortune magazine "2008 new guru you should know," designed the online Behavior Wizard to help you pinpoint a habit you would like to stop, increase or decrease with a series of steps (Dot - one time, Span - specific duration of time, Path - now and forever) to achieve your goal by "removing the trigger, reducing the motivation and the availability."

See the "Eating Behavior Mapped into the Behavior Grid": http://www.behaviorgrid.org/ and check out the Behavior Wizard if you want to address a specific behavior like stop eating sugar or eat more greens, less meat: http://www.behaviorwizard.org/wp/

The US National Institute of Health (NIH) also offers a "guide to behavior change" for maintaining weight loss and notes "successful weight managers are those who select two or three goals at a time that are manageable."

Keep in mind "useful goals should be (1) specific; (2) attainable (doable); and (3) forgiving (less than perfect)."

RealAge.com is another resource to help you evaluate your nutritional health through a detailed survey that summarizes specific habits to modify to get you eating well and in a balanced fashion.

NIH's Aim for a Healthy Weight: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/lose_wt/behavior.htm

Myths

2010-08-28T11:11:00.001+01:00

We only use 10 per cent of our brains

Although you might think your batty uncle might be the perfect example, in fact scans show that all of the brain is active and playing a part in our thinking. Even small amounts of damage to the brain will cause mental impairment.

Sweets and other sugary treats make children hyperactive

Repeated studies have shown that children's behaviour is not affected by the amount of sugar they've eaten - although parents rate their children as being more hyperactive if they think they have given them a sugary drink, even if it is, in fact, just water!

Breast feeding causes saggy breasts

Good news mothers - this is false. A study by American plastic surgeons found that breastfeeding had no effect on the shape of women's breasts. However being overweight or a smoker were linked to saggier breast appearance, as were the number of pregnancies, size of breast before pregnancy and the age of the woman.

We should drink 8 glasses of water a day to avoid dehydration

There is no scientific evidence to support this widely believed and often followed myth. Tea, coffee, fruit juice - even the food we eat - all provide us with fluid. In fact excessive intake of fluid can damage the body and can even be fatal.

Spinach is high in iron

There must have been something else in Popeye's diet, because spinach is not all that rich in iron. Apparently, when it was first measured the decimal point was written in the wrong place, overstating the iron content of spinach by a factor of 10. Spinach contains about 1mg of iron per 100g, whereas dried figs have 4.25mg, roast beef 2.5mg and courgettes 2.4mg.

Warm milk helps you get to sleep at night

Milk contains the enzyme tryptophan which has been linked to the initial stages of sleep - but the amount in a glass of milk probably isn't enough to make us drowsy. But the psychological effect of warm milk at bedtime may be strong enough to put us in the mood for sleep!

Sick people should rest in bed

An analysis of 39 studies on the use of bed rest in treatment found that for many ailments staying in bed had no beneficial effect. In some cases it was actually harmful. Sorry, but going back to work is sometimes the best treatment!

You should wear a hat because we lose most of our body heat through our heads

Our heads don't give off any more heat than any other part of our body. If you are fully clothed then of course most of the heat will leave through your head because it is uncovered, but the same would be true for any other similarly sized body part.

Too much stress can give you ulcers

Actually, over 90 per cent of ulcers are caused by a bacterium, Helicobacter pylori.

If you are stung by a jellyfish you should pee on the sting

Before you start approaching people on the beach asking them to do the deed, you should know this is not true. There is nothing in urine that can counteract the effects of a jellyfish sting - in fact some stings will be further activated by it. But washing out the sting with warm water may alleviate the pain and prevent further skin damage, so this may be the source of the myth.

Rules

2010-08-28T11:07:00.002+01:00

Rules of the road - lines you can and cannot park on

Finding a space in a town centre is a job in itself and avoiding rip-off multi-storey car parks is a must if you want to save cash.

But where you can leave your car and for how long can be confusing - and cheeky traffic wardens dine out on your bewilderment.

The Government has announced that new legislation will come into force in November to ban clamping on private land, so drivers can breathe a small sigh of relief, but there's still plenty of ambiguity about parking in public areas.

Just how long can you leave your car on a single yellow line for, and what does a red route really mean? We've scoured the Highway Code to reveal the facts so you don't have to find out the hard way.

Yellow lines
It's common knowledge that double yellow lines alongside a kerb mean no waiting at any time, but in some cases there are signs nearby indicating that you can park there at certain times of the day or year, so it's worth a look if you're desperate.

Single yellow lines are where the biggest source of ambiguity lies. According to the Highway Code, single yellows should be accompanied by a sign that displays when you can and can't park there. It's usually a case of no parking at peak times (i.e. between 8am and 6pm), but check the sign to be sure.

Red routes
Double and single red lines are a common sight on London's congested roads. Parking, unloading or even stopping for a second to let a passenger out are all strictly prohibited on roads with these along the side.

In a similar vein to a single yellow, a single red line will have a nearby sign that shows the times when the enforcements are more relaxed. Double reds should be avoided at all costs and at all times. The only exceptions to the rules are for licensed taxis and blue badge holders.

Loading
If you need to park for a short period of time to load or unload the boot then look for yellow marks on the kerb. Two yellow marks mean no loading at any time, while one yellow mark means that you can load at certain times. Both markings should also have nearby signs that tell you whether and when you can stop to load there.

Specific loading bays are marked in white with the words LOADING ONLY displayed on the ground alongside the bay, so parking and walking away is not allowed. A white sign with a blue 'loading only' symbol will also be displayed nearby.

Other road markings
White zigzag lines mean you're near a zebra crossing and stopping on them is out of the question as you may obstruct the view of pedestrians crossing the road. The same goes for yellow zigzag lines outside a school, which are usually accompanied by the words SCHOOL KEEP CLEAR in yellow.

Bus lanes and bus stops should be avoided for obvious reasons, and cameras to keep them free of anything but buses and taxis are now widespread, particularly in cities. A criss-cross yellow box means that you can't stop for any reason as you may obstruct other traffic and yellow box cameras are now very popular with city councils.

Some parking spaces are reserved for specific vehicles like doctors' cars or vehicles that belong to nearby businesses - such spaces are always marked, either on the road itself or with signs and, while you may or may not be fined for leaving your car in them, you'll almost certainly leave the locals a little peeved, which is never a good move.

If you're still unsure then check out the Government's motoring guidelines on: www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring.

Model Pupil - which one?

2010-08-19T21:55:00.002+01:00

4 grade A (3 A*) at A level...well done

A level results

2010-08-19T05:58:00.000+01:00

Subject by subject

Cervical dystonia

2010-08-15T21:34:00.001+01:00

Worth Watching

2010-08-13T06:39:00.000+01:00

A debate for Ramadan

2010-08-09T18:48:00.001+01:00

Dystonia

2010-08-05T18:08:00.002+01:00

Recent news....

I stumbled across this...

remember I raise funds for the charity via this

This site - though old - still exists...

Worth looking at

Is Apple Rotting?

2010-07-30T07:42:00.001+01:00

Apple is facing legal action after owners of its products claim that their devices have been overheating and shutting down unexpectedly. Skip related content

Related photos / videos

Apple 'in trouble' over products overheating Enlarge photo

Three iPad owners in California are currently suing the electronics giant as they say the brand new computer tablets are “virtually unusable” in direct sunlight because they can cut out after only a few minutes of use.

A complaint filed by customers accuses Apple of everything from “misleading and deceptive advertising” to various breaches of business and consumer protection law.

The complaint also addresses Apple’s “false” marketing claim that the iPad is “just like reading a book”. “Books do not close when a reader is enjoying them in sunlight,” it says.

At the same time, Apple has been ordered to explain to Japan's industry ministry what it plans to do about its iPod Nano overheating and catching fire. So far, there have been at least 27 incidents in Japan of the device overheating while charging.

The worst cases have seen six iPod Nanos start fires that needed to be put out by firefighters. Four people have burned themselves touching the device but Apple has failed to act, an official from Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry told reporters.

He said: "The ministry repeatedly asked Apple Japan to take market measures, such as giving warnings or recalling the products, but it has failed to do so," he said. The Ministry also ordered Apple to report overseas incidents of the Nano overheating, the official said.

Innovation

2010-07-20T15:16:00.000+01:00

social seek

2010-07-12T16:52:00.002+01:00

http://www.chemistry.ie/

And now....

2010-07-12T03:32:00.000+01:00

...I am in Trinidad....

Currently in...

2010-07-01T17:32:00.000+01:00

...Barbados so posts suspended.

Starting a T-shirt business?

2010-06-21T19:49:00.002+01:00

How to start a T-shirt business

Starting a t-shirt company

How to start a t-shirt business

Forum on starting a t-shirt business

Starting a t-shirt business

Starting a t-shirt business

Forum on starting a t-shirt business

Detailed site on starting a t-shirt business

Advice on starting a t-shirt business

T-shirt business start-up...

eHow to start a t-shirt business

Andy Ripley R.I.P

2010-06-18T22:40:00.000+01:00

Dare we hope? We dare. 'Can we hope? We can. 'Should we hope? We must. 'We must because to do otherwise is to waste the most precious of gifts, given freely by God to all of us. So, when we do die, it will be with hope and it will be easy and our hearts will not be broken . .

Wasted Talent

2010-06-17T23:33:00.001+01:00

A young computer hacker who carried out a sophisticated and lucrative online fraud operation to feed his gambling habit has been jailed.

Alistair Peckover, 21, bought a Porsche, expensive watches and more than £30,000 worth of gold bullion using the proceeds from his complex scam. Detectives said he systematically defrauded legitimate online businesses and unsuspecting members of the public with his self-taught computer skills.

Peckover, of London Road, Hailsham, East Sussex, was jailed for 20 months at Southend Crown Court in Essex after admitting two counts of fraud. A further 50 offences were taken into consideration, Sussex Police said.

Using sophisticated computer programmes, some of which he wrote himself, "obsessive loner" Peckover remotely viewed files of other computer users without their knowledge or consent. Systems by Google and BT were misused by Peckover who breached security barriers to target online betting sites and individual email accounts.

In one scam, Sussex Police said he was able to access the email account and the password of everyone that had bought an item using BT Openzone, which enables people to access the internet wirelessly. Using this pool of personal information, Peckover then searched to see which of them had a GMail email account, then created a list of more than 500 people whose email addresses he had obtained.

Police said Peckover then placed "filters" on all the email accounts. Any email that contained key words including "sort code", "exp" or "amazon" would be deleted from the user's inbox without them knowing. The email would be automatically forwarded to him so he could use it for his own purposes. Using a computer "fake mail" programme, Peckover would take the identity of the original sender and continue correspondence with the victim.

Police said Peckover's victims stretched across the world, and with the personal information he illegally obtained, he used credit cards belonging to others to buy gifts for himself and loved ones. He also took rent money somebody had been paying their landlord via bank transfer and directed money to himself that someone had put aside to buy a car.

Detectives seized a Porsche from Peckover, as well as £40,000 in cash stuffed in two containers, a Breitling and Rolex watch, six computers, a Nintendo Wii, a Pioneer car stereo and gold bullion. Passports in three names he used were also found.

In a further scam, Peckover stole the identities of unsuspecting people to open gambling accounts with Ladbrokes and SkyBet. He had already received a suspended prison sentence in June last year for hacking into gambling sites and making a large profit for himself. But just two months later police said he was breaking the law again, by hacking into BT Openzone and gaining details of people's email accounts and their passwords. He then used one of the identities to open a gambling account. Police said he later admitted all the offences and to cheating on several other gambling sites.

Detective Constable Des Hamilton, of Sussex Police's major fraud unit, said: "This is a classic example of a self-taught, obsessive loner with real computer skills but no concern for his impact on other people. Peckover used his skills to systematically defraud legitimate online businesses and unsuspecting members of the public. We hope that this sentence will help him use his obvious talents for more honest activity. Computer-based crime is not victimless."

The Future

2010-06-17T01:26:00.000+01:00

Get rid of vuvuzelas

2010-06-15T09:05:00.001+01:00

There is now an internet download promises to eliminate the sound from broadcasts.

Fans play the £2.45 MP3 file on their HiFi or computer while watching football and it uses 'active noise cancellation' to silence the horns.

The download generates a series of inverted sound waves that 'clash' with the waves of the vuvuzela to effectively cancel each other out.

Italy's Mauro Camoranesi (right) and Simone Pepe pretend to play the vuvuzela during a training session at Cape Town's Green Point Stadium

The download lasts 45 minutes - enough for one half of football - and can be put on repeat for the second half.

The website, antivuvuzelafilter.com, says: 'This is your chance to enjoy the FIFA World Cup 2010 WITHOUT the annoying vuvuzela noise!

'Get rid of the vuvuzela noise through active noise cancellation.'

For maximum effect, antivuvuzelafilter.com say their download should be played through a speaker placed next to the television and set to the same volume.

If done properly it should make the vuvuzelas 'so faint as to be inaudible to human ears'.

Video

2010-06-12T00:28:00.000+01:00

911

2010-06-12T00:15:00.000+01:00

Chip

2010-06-12T00:08:00.000+01:00

Tab Napping

2010-06-08T16:09:00.000+01:00

Watch out for this new online phishing scam which uses 'tab napping' to attack your computer - and your finances...

Always check the URL is correct to make sure you haven't been tab napped

As internet users we’re all vulnerable to online scams. Unluckily for us, as soon as we become pretty good as spotting one type of attack, another more sophisticated version comes along in its place. In fact, technology company, Mozilla - which developed the Firefox web browser - has recently warned against a possible threat from a new scam known as ‘tab napping’ which takes phishing one step further.
What is tab napping?

Tab napping is essentially a new kind of phishing scam. Until now phishing has involved sending hoax emails in an attempt to steal your usernames, passwords and bank details. Often the sender will claim to be from your bank and will ask you to verify your bank details by clicking on a link contained in the email.

The link actually directs you to a fake website which looks just like your bank's own website. Once you have typed in your login details they can be accessed by the criminals who set the fake site up.

But we’re beginning to wise up to phishing attacks like this, and many of us know we should be very wary of clicking URLs even if they appear to be in a legitimate email.

With awareness of phishing on the up, making it more difficult for scammers to succeed, tab napping could be the scam to watch out for next.

Rachel Robson reveals five of the worst scams around...
How does tab napping work?

Tab napping is more sophisticated than the phishing scams we’ve seen so far, and it no longer relies on persuading you to click on a dodgy link. Instead it targets internet users who open lots of tabs on their browser at the same time (for example, by pressing CTRL + T).

How does it work? By replacing an inactive browser tab with a fake page set up specifically to obtain your personal data - without you even realising it has happened.

Believe it or not, fraudsters can actually detect when a tab has been left inactive for a while, and spy on your browser history to find out which websites you regularly visit, and therefore which pages to fake.

So, don't assume that after you have opened a new tab and visited a web page, that web page will stay the same even if you don’t return to it for a time while you use other windows and tabs. Malicious code can replace the web page you opened with a fake version which looks virtually identical to the legitimate page you originally visited.
How might tab napping work in practice?

Imagine you open the login page for your online bank account, but then you open a new tab to visit another website for a few minutes, leaving the first tab unattended. When you return to your bank’s site the login page looks exactly how you left it. What you haven’t realised is that a fake page has taken its place, so when you type in your username and password, you have inadvertently given the fraudster easy access to your account.

Donna Werbner gets your two pence on the scams you hate, and finds out how you can protect yourself and stop the scammers from stealing your cash.

Even if you have already logged into your bank account before opening another tab, when you return you might find you’re being asked to login again. This may not necessarily rouse any suspicion since you might simply assume your bank has logged you out because you left your account inactive for too long. You probably won’t even think twice before logging in for a second time. But this time round you have accidently inputted your security details into a fraudster’s fake page which have been sent back to their server.

Once you have done so, you can then be easily redirected to your bank’s genuine website since you never actually logged out in the first place, giving you the impression that all is well.
How can you protect yourself against tab napping?

This is pretty scary stuff but thankfully tab napping should be relatively easy to avoid. Here are five simple ways you can prevent yourself from falling victim:

* Make sure you always check the URL in the browser address page is correct before you enter any login details. A fake tabbed page will have a different URL to the website you think you’re using.
* Always check the URL has a secure https:// address even if you don’t have tabs open on the browser.
* If the URL looks suspicious in any way, close the tab and reopen it by entering the correct URL again.
* Avoid leaving tabs open which require you to type in secure login details. Don't open any tabs while doing online banking - open new windows instead (CTL + N).
* Finally, take a look at Online banking: How to stay safe to find out other ways to protect yourself from online scams.

Konrad

2010-06-07T01:35:00.002+01:00

Unit 4

2010-06-04T08:38:00.001+01:00

AQA A2 BUSINESS (BUSS4) REVISION QUIZZES

Government Spending & Taxation
Inflation
Interest Rates & Monetary Policy
Unemployment

iPod

2010-06-02T21:27:00.001+01:00

Stop all the clocks

2010-05-16T00:08:00.001+01:00

Monster Manifesto

2010-05-07T03:02:00.001+01:00

Cool on the outside:
To combat global warming and climate change all buildings should be fitted with air conditioning units on the outside.
Wheelie Bins:
The idea of weight monitoring chips in wheelie bins should be scrapped, instead the wheels should be removed, this would mean that if people generated too much waist they could not put their non-wheelie bin out for collection. It would also help prevent them being chucked into canals.
Needles
Due to the increasing number of children afraid of needles, I propose the destruction of the tedious, scary and often painful process of school vaccinations.
Instead, I propose that highly trained nurses should be given free reign on the playground with specially modified tranquillizer rifles which apply vaccinations as well as a tranquillizer. This would have two main benefits: It would be less scary for the children as they will not know what hit them, also it will be more fun for the nurses
Hypocrites

It is proposed that all politicians be made to swear a "hippocratic oath", preventing them by law from being Hypocrites. All politicians should be made to stand by their policies, or or at least admit that they were wrong.
GCSE Lottery
It is proposed that, before the beginning of exams, the exam board will select a certain obscure phrase which will be kept secret. If any pupil inadvertently writes this phrase in any exam,he/she will automaticaly receive straight A* grades, and a free teddy.
One Sided Policy

It is proposed that The European Union end its discrimination by creating a "Court of Human Lefts" because their present policy is one_sided.
Prison Food
The problems of prison overcrowding and increased crime will be solved easily by issuing a compulsory contract on McDonalds to do all prison catering. Convervative estimates suggest a 50% reduction in crime rates within 2 years with 0% re-offender figures.
Political Colours
All politicians should paint them self's permantly head to toe in the colour of the party they represent - e.g. all Labour candidates in Red , all Conservatives in Blue ,etc,etc
One hours silence.
At 12 0' clock pm every day we will have a one hour silence dedicated to our time that has been lost due to work, home and labour
Good Heroes
Make it illegal for super heroes to use their powers for evil.
Safe Tractors
Ban tractors from driving on roads, they can drive across their fields.
Scary Terrorists
Ban all terrorists from having beards as they look scary.
Poop Scoop
Anyone allowing their Hyena to poop on the pavement should shovel it away immediately, As this is no laughing matter
Put a Sock in it
All socks to be sold in packs of 3 as a precaution against losing one.

(checkout this website to find the inventor of this product www.THROX.com ... )
A Hanging Offence
It is proposed to systematicly destroy all wire coat hangers.
Shirts slip off them. People hang them on doorhandles. They bend when you hang jeans on them. The flick off rails. They join together in pairs. The gaggle in dodgy, tinny, wiry orgies, tingling nastily. They have a static sneer. Have you ever actually seen anybody buy them? Who even sells them? Do they just appear in your wardrobes? They seem to have a near endless domestic omnipresence.
Not only a waste of wire, but a waste of time. How often have you had to rehang things on them? Or perhaps Reiron shirts after being bent ruthlessly shapelss thereon? Then they spin of the rail and onto the floor. You kick them and then get wrapped around your foot, or sibling. And then if you can find a bin that will fit such a stupidly angular object, the sadistic little sharp corner on the hook rips the bag and there it is again, escaped. What a malicious little sod.
Let's face it; The only use for metal coat hangers is to unravel them and make them into something else.
Therefore, it is proposed that all wire coathangers should be systematically hung, drawn and unravelled, under the 1936 Public Order Act.
Eurofit
The European Constitution which will be sorted out by going for a long Walk. "As everyone knows that walking is good for the constitution"
Sweet Shares
Sell shares in Northen rock, buy shares in Blackpool rock!
Terror Passport
Separate Passports for Terrorists: Terrorists should be required (by virtue of law) to apply for separate passports in which they give there full contact details, number of explosives, and time (as well as location) of any plot. This would save time and money in gathering intelligence, and could also help identify the intended ambition(s) behind any atrocity(s).
Obeescity in Kids
If you want your kids to be less fat...feed em less (do we need to make a policy of this?....its common sense)
Making Taxes Irrelevant
Abolishing the ‘inheritance tax’ is all well and good, but what will the funds be replaced with?
It is proposed to create an ‘irrelevance tax’, where people of limited seriousness make up the tax shortfall.
What better way to obtain public support than to abolish inheritance tax AND pay the public’s taxation at the same time!
Allotted Proposal
A proposal by DBopenlock. Make Weeding an olympic sport in order to save the 100 year old Manor Garden Allotments from being demolished for the 2012 games.
Isle of?
It is proposed that the Isle of Man be renamed to "The Isle of Men, Women, Children and some Animals" as not just men live there
NHS Dentistry.
All newly trained Dentists will be require to have three teeth removed, 2 fillings and root canal work done without anesthetic. Then they will know the agony they inflict on the rest of us.
Interesting News:
Every day the news should tell people an interesting fact in a hope to increase people's knowledge.
A Warm solution:
It is proposed that all pavements are heated so it is possible to walk bare foot in the winter, this would also serve another purpose by making the pavements warm no ice would form on them thereby reducing the risk of injury for everyone.
A Lions share:
It is proposed that we change the English symbol of three lions to 3 badgers. How often do you see lions running round the countryside, we should be proud of the lack of wild and interesting species on our fair isle.
Olimpic event:
'Following the Leader' is a pastime that has been cast aside by society today and we think it should become an extreme event in the Olimpicks. (We are keeping this one hidden from Tony Blair as he may make it law)
Political correctness
The Isle of Wight should be changed to: "The Isle of Mixed Races, and Cultures Located off the Coast of Britain."
Animal fashions
It is proposed that :Pets, especially cats and dogs, may not be dressed in miniature human clothing for the purpose of human amusement, unless the animal in question can equip the clothing himself/herself. Punishable by dressing the owner of the animal in miniature human clothing.
Edukayshun
GCSE English exams be given a more straight-forward layout, with lots of
short questions like the Maths papers have.
Education (Skool acktiviteas)
Homework should be banned as it is bad enough for kids having to go to school let
alone bring it home with them
Bright Skoolkids
Bright pupils will be provided with dimmer switches to prevent them distracting the rest of the class.
Skool Dinners r hot?
School dinners must be regularly checked for radioactivity.
P.E.lessons
We should teach proper sports in P.E. e.g. Fishing, Fencing,
and how to let the head teacher's car tyres down without getting caught.
Education
As well as using computers in schools, children should be taught to reed, rite, and appreciate rock.
Keep Edukayshun Fit
In order to keep our teachers fit, 3 periods a week of PE will be allocated for teachers/headmasters and any ancillary staff who happen to be in the area (i.e dinner ladies etc,) (and pupils get to watch. Skipping for men and football for ladies)
Bench mark for schools
To combat discomfort and possible medical litigation, Cushions will be provided for all school chairs.
Skools Out
School will be dismissed if three or more pigeons make it into the central corridor.
SKool Dinners
Pizza Hut and KFC to provide school meals.
Teaching Skool Dress Code
All teachers should come to school dressed as pink teddy bears then they will
not be so intimidating.
Too much Talking
Languages should be banned in schools as most kids (and adults) have trouble with English.
No fly Zone
It is proposed to declare the Channel Tunnel a No Fly Zone.
Telling Fibbs
It is proposed that Political leaders are banned if they avoid a straight answer "Yes" or "No". As they may still be telling fibbs, any such person found to string out an answer longer than2.8 seconds should be forced to undertake a lie detector test.
Elecshun Lottery
It is proposed that people should have a free go on the national lottery when they go and vote.
Bugged Singers
All singers who's names sound like infectious diseases( i.e: Chriestina Aguilera, Natalie Imbruglia) will be provided with free antibiotics courtesy of the NHS, just in case it spreads. You can never be safe enough!
Paper (Health & Safety)
Paper cuts (being extremely painful) should be banned. Paper manufacturers will be required to surround all paper with a foam frame. This will ensure that it will not be harmful to children under the age of 80.
Say "No" to Cruelty
It is proposed to abolish all kinds of animal cruely including flie swatters, hunting, chasing kangaroos off cliffs etc, also eating of plants as it causes undue stress to the plant and all weed killers shold be considered as a weapon of mass destruction, pain should also be made illegal.
Poetic License
Poets will have to sign up for a 'poetic license' this way shoddy poetry will be eliminated. Also in the test for the license wannabe poets will need to write funny limericks. They will be asked to produce at least one a week, or they are stripped of their license.
Fun Shopping
To boost the country's economy - it is proposed that British citizens visit shopping centres wearing a squeeky red clown nose and green wig. This would make shopping mush more fun.
Stop Me and Fry One
Combine the love of Fishing with the great british love of queuing by putting bus stops near canals and lakes. This will also provide convenient homeward transport for britain's proud anglers and will save space.
Nice Curves
A government agency will be set up to paint contour lines on to hills and colour roads the same as on maps. This will help people know where they are.
Elections Make You Cross.
Why do we put a "cross" on the ballot paper.
A cross normally means "thats wrong".
We propose that a "tick" would be more suitable.
Putting across next to someones name on the ballot paper is as good as writing
"monumental cock up" next to their name.
Iraq.
Polcy on Iraq: Since Iraq needs to have a proper infrastructure before they can run their own country, I propose we send our traffic wardens out to Iraq to give tickets to American Jeeps and Tanks illegally parked thereby raising much needed revenue for the Iraq government (and giving us a much needed break!)
Prescott Day
Since we have Guy Fawkes day because Fawkes ATTEMPTED to destroy Parliament (Penny for the Guy, mate!) and we burn effigies of Fawkes, should we not have a John Prescott day for SUCCEEDING in destroying Parliament, well credibility at least (Penny for the John, mate!) and we could throw John on the bonfire.
National Defense.
To keep our nation on it's toes, we should have a minimum of 2 nuclear war drills a day.
Jumping the Que
We propose dedicated pogo stick lanes on routes to centres of work.
Parking Wardens Sarcasm.
All traffic wardens should be banned from using the phrase "Hello wing
commander having trouble taking off"
Lucky Month.
We propose to create 13th month, to get all those little things out of the way. The things you just never had time to do... like take out the trash, vote in a general election, learn Latin...
Another benefit would be that all monthly paid earners would receive an extra months pay.
Nessie
The Loch Ness Monster should be added to the endangered species list.
Good Knight
Ozzy Osborne must receive a knighthood.
Home of your Own
All new homes should be built with a swimming pool and bouncy castle as standard.
To lower the house prices and help young people I propose we erase the last ‘0’ from the price.
Seating Arrangements
All armchairs and sofas should be redesigned so as not to include a gap where small articles (such as loose change, keys, remote controls and kitchen sinks) can fall down.
Disipline in Parliament
Government Whips will only be used if a politician has been really bad. Minor offences should receive the political slipper.
Footnote
Asterisks will be banned*
Asylum's a Joke
All asylum seekers would be allowed to stay as long as they can tell a
good joke
Defense
All soldiers serving abroad would be issued with a long ranged laser guided water pistols
Obecity...obeesIT....fat kids
To tackle the growing problem of obesity in children, It is proposed that all stair lifts in old folks homes be removed and replaced with hand operated pulley systems. These pulley systems will be operated by the obese children on a rotational period so as not to cut into their schooling. The effort required to lift these OAP's will be adequate exercise for our plump offspring.
Foreign policy:
Whenever Great Britain is to play host to a foreign nation in an international sporting event, the British teams should ensure that the visiting team wins. This is correct and proper - it is only polite to allow our guest to win a few games. The beneficial effects of such a policy should not be underestimated, indeed the recent war in Iraq could well have been averted if the forces of Saddam Hussein had been allowed to win a one day international cricket match or a nice game of rugger.
Saintly State
The creation of a "State-Saint-System" where-by people can vote for ANYONE who they wish to be blessed in as a saint - EXAMPLE. St Dodd of Tickle-stick, St Roy of the Rovers.
N.H.S
Chocolate be available as a prescription drug
Pay for Free CD's
Free CDs with magazines and newspapers be made genuinely free, and available to take away from shops, supermarkets and filling stations etc, and the purchase of the related newspaper and magazine selling the free CD, along with the CD itself be made an optional extra?
Those that choose not to buy the newspaper can then nominate a fish and chip shop to send the newspaper to, thereby supporting the environmentally friendly practice of paper recycling?
CDs aren't really free if you have to pay to get them!
Paperwaits
Weekend newspapers. They're rather heavy aren't they, especially broadsheets? A lot of supplements you'll never bother to read. A waste isn't it?
How about paying a price for the 'Basic Broadsheet Package', that of the main newspaper on its own, and then a small top-up charge for those newspaper supplements that you will actually read, and leave the other supplements on the shelf to remain available to those interested in them?
N.H.S
Maltesers should be on prescription.
Traffic
As you may be aware, there have been recent measures to reduce congestion in London with proposals for other major cities to follow suit. It is proposed that all car owners in the affected areas (London and soon Birmingham, Manchester, etc,) be forced to replace their cars with hovercrafts for the following reasons:
1. Hovercrafts can go on all terrain, meaning they can spread out, take short cuts and go on water etc.
2. As they are inflatable, being hit by one will be less painful.
3. They could use the canal system, thus creating extra jobs and revitalizing a sadly neglected part of our Heritage.
3. Electric eels like hovercrafts because of their association with the see, therefore, electric eels should be persuaded to jump start any hovercraft where the battery is dead.
Best meal of the Day
It is proposed that we should introduce Asparagus for breakfast.
Mind the manholes
In order to reduce polution all cars must have their engines removed, instead they should have holes in the bottom where people can put their feet and run along. This would be a little bit like the flintstones
Women's football
To get more men to watch women's football all players should have to swap shirts at the end of games (or better still, every time they kick the ball?)
Rainbow stop
It is proposed that we should get rid of three colour traffic lights, and replace it with a much larger spectrum.
Good Morning
It should be illegal to wake up prior to 9.00 A.M. Offenders will made to work on a treadmill for 25 hours, and then woken up after 30 mins heavy sleep with a large alarm clock. Thrown at them.
The exception to this rule will be Doctors who, will have to work longer hours due to the extra number of reported head injuries
An Englishman's home is his Chateaux
It is proposed that everyone in England should buy one hundred square meters (or be subsidized to do so) of France.
The English would then own France, saving a lot of arguments, and winning us another UN veto...
After owning France, It is proposed that we should rent it back to the French
Then we should start on Germany.
Fellowship of the OMRLP
It is proposed that being the Lord of the Ring should be illegal. Anyone who owns the Ring should hand it into the capable hands of the OMRLP. From now on, when ever someone disappears, they should be called "Smeagol" or "Gollum" instead of John or Jane Doe.
Harry's Potty
As punishment, for their crimes against fiction, Daniel Radcliff, Emma Watson and Christopher Columbus (Harry Potter, Hermionie and the director of Harry Potter, respectively) should be made to stand in front of the ridiculous sign in Kings Cross. Platform 3 and 3/4s,
Logical New Industries
The energizer should be invented. As should the Enterprise. As should the Vulcan.
Don't understand why? Well it is highly illogical...
Working Time Regulations
Dr. Who shall be made to work doctors hours, we shall not be biased towards Time Lords.
Computations
Canon should be shot. Dell shall be pelted with dill. There should be 5 Pentiums. Why arn't Windows crystal clear?
A Place in History
History should be renamed Geography. As in "Right that's it. You're geography!"
Waxing Works
Madame Tussaud's should be renamed Ms Tussaud's.
Start Wars
Jedi should be recognised as a Religion. Did you know that there are more Jedi's in England than Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs, or anything that isn't Hindu, Christian or Muslim.
Not liked
It is suggested that we should be xenophobic. But, being English, it isn't practical.
Guard Dogs
Guard Dogs shall no longer be permitted.(they're so vicious)
It is proposed that they will be replaced with Guard Tortoises,
called Shelly.
Olimpix
Supermarket Trolley Formation Dancing to be made an Olimpick event.
Health & Wealth
All persons born with "a silver spoon in their mouth" will have it surgically removed at birth on the N.H.S
This will help to prevent mental illness in later years. i.e. Delusions of Self Importance.
Things going Bad
We will set up an inquiry to find out if:
(a). Things are really that Bad and
(b). They are out to get you
Bon Voyage
We will pass a law ordering British Airways flight attendants to CHEER UP!
Keep Fit
P.E should be an optional school subject and not permited during winter. (Unless you permit it)
Spectator Sport
Cricket will be made more interesting by elliminating the use of padding. (and possibly Cricket Bats)

Election

2010-05-07T02:59:00.001+01:00

Winning an argument

2010-05-06T17:12:00.000+01:00

1. Carry your opponent's proposition beyond its natural limits; exaggerate it. The more general your opponent's statement becomes, the more objections you can find against it. The more restricted and narrow your own propositions remain, the easier they are to defend.

2. Use different meanings of your opponent's words to refute his argument.
Example: Person A says, "You do not understand the mysteries of Kant's philosophy." Person B replies, "Oh, if it's mysteries you're talking about, I'll have nothing to do with them."

3. Ignore your opponent's proposition, which was intended to refer to some particular thing. Rather, understand it in some quite different sense, and then refute it. Attack something different than what was asserted.

4. Hide your conclusion from your opponent until the end. Mingle your premises here and there in your talk. Get your opponent to agree to them in no definite order. By this circuitous route you conceal your goal until you have reached all the admissions necessary to reach your goal.

5. Use your opponent's beliefs against him. If your opponent refuses to accept your premises, use his own premises to your advantage.
Example: If the opponent is a member of an organization or a religious sect to which you do not belong, you may employ the declared opinions of this group against the opponent.

6. Confuse the issue by changing your opponent's words or what he or she seeks to prove.
Example: Call something by a different name: "good repute" instead of "honor," "virtue" instead of "virginity," "red-blooded" instead of "vertebrates."

7. State your proposition and show the truth of it by asking the opponent many questions. By asking many wide-reaching questions at once, you may hide what you want to get admitted. Then you quickly propound the argument resulting from the opponent's admissions.

8. Make your opponent angry. An angry person is less capable of using judgment or perceiving where his or her advantage lies.

9. Use your opponent's answers to your questions to reach different or even opposite conclusions.

10. If your opponent answers all your questions negatively and refuses to grant you any points, ask him or her to concede the opposite of your premises. This may confuse the opponent as to which point you actually seek him to concede.

11. If the opponent grants you the truth of some of your premises, refrain from asking him or her to agree to your conclusion. Later, introduce your conclusion as a settled and admitted fact. Your opponent and others in attendance may come to believe that your conclusion was admitted.

12. If the argument turns upon general ideas with no particular names, you must use language or a metaphor that is favorable to your proposition.
Example: What an impartial person would call "public worship" or a "system of religion" is described by an adherent as "piety" or "godliness" and by an opponent as "bigotry" or "superstition." In other words, inset what you intend to prove into the definition of the idea.

13. To make your opponent accept a proposition, you must give him an opposite, counter-proposition as well. If the contrast is glaring, the opponent will accept your proposition to avoid being paradoxical.
Example: If you want him to admit that a boy must do everything that his father tells him to do, ask him, "whether in all things we must obey or disobey our parents." Or, if a thing is said to occur "often," ask whether you are to understand "often" to mean few or many times, the opponent will say "many." It is as though you were to put gray next to black and call it white, or gray next to white and call it black.

14. Try to bluff your opponent. If he or she has answered several of your questions without the answers turning out in favor of your conclusion, advance your conclusion triumphantly, even if it does not follow. If your opponent is shy or stupid, and you yourself possess a great deal of impudence and a good voice, the technique may succeed.

15. If you wish to advance a proposition that is difficult to prove, put it aside for the moment. Instead, submit for your opponent's acceptance or rejection some true proposition, as though you wished to draw your proof from it. Should the opponent reject it because he suspects a trick, you can obtain your triumph by showing how absurd the opponent is to reject an obviously true proposition. Should the opponent accept it, you now have reason on your side for the moment. You can either try to prove your original proposition, as in #14, or maintain that your original proposition is proved by what your opponent accepted. For this an extreme degree of impudence is required, but experience shows cases of it succeeding.

16. When your opponent puts forth a proposition, find it inconsistent with his or her other statements, beliefs, actions or lack of action.
Example: Should your opponent defend suicide, you may at once exclaim, "Why don't you hang yourself?" Should the opponent maintain that his city is an unpleasant place to live, you may say, "Why don't you leave on the first plane?"

17. If your opponent presses you with a counter-proof, you will often be able to save yourself by advancing some subtle distinction. Try to find a second meaning or an ambiguous sense for your opponent's idea.

18. If your opponent has taken up a line of argument that will end in your defeat, you must not allow him to carry it to its conclusion. Interrupt the dispute, break it off altogether, or lead the opponent to a different subject.

19. Should your opponent expressly challenge you to produce any objection to some definite point in his argument, and you have nothing to say, try to make the argument less specific.
Example: If you are asked why a particular hypothesis cannot be accepted, you may speak of the fallibility of human knowledge, and give various illustrations of it.

20. If your opponent has admitted to all or most of your premises, do not ask him or her directly to accept your conclusion. Rather, draw the conclusion yourself as if it too had been admitted.

21. When your opponent uses an argument that is superficial and you see the falsehood, you can refute it by setting forth its superficial character. But it is better to meet the opponent with a counter-argument that is just as superficial, and so dispose of him. For it is with victory that you are concerned, not with truth.
Example: If the opponent appeals to prejudice or emotion, or attacks you personally, return the attack in the same manner.

22. If your opponent asks you to admit something from which the point in dispute will immediately follow, you must refuse to do so, declaring that it begs the question.

23. Contradiction and contention irritate a person into exaggerating his statements. By contradicting your opponent you may drive him into extending the statement beyond its natural limit. When you then contradict the exaggerated form of it, you look as though you had refuted the original statement. Contrarily, if your opponent tries to extend your own statement further than you intended, redefine your statement's limits and say, "That is what I said, no more."

24. State a false syllogism. Your opponent makes a proposition, and by false inference and distortion of his ideas you force from the proposition other propositions that are not intended and that appear absurd. It then appears that your opponent's proposition gave rise to these inconsistencies, and so it appears to be indirectly refuted.

25. If your opponent is making a generalization, find an instance to the contrary. Only one valid contradiction is needed to overthrow the opponent's proposition.
Example: "All ruminants are horned," is a generalization that may be upset by the single instance of the camel.

26. A brilliant move is to turn the tables and use your opponent's arguments against himself.
Example: Your opponent declares, "So and so is a child, you must make an allowance for him." You retort, "Just because he is a child, I must correct him; otherwise he will persist in his bad habits."

27. Should your opponent surprise you by becoming particularly angry at an argument, you must urge it with all the more zeal. No only will this make your opponent angry, but it will appear that you have put your finger on the weak side of his case, and your opponent is more open to attack on this point than you expected.

28. When the audience consists of individuals (or a person) who are not experts on a subject, you make an invalid objection to your opponent who seems to be defeated in the eyes of the audience. This strategy is particularly effective if your objection makes your opponent look ridiculous or if the audience laughs. If your opponent must make a long, winded and complicated explanation to correct you, the audience will not be disposed to listen to him.

29. If you find that you are being beaten, you can create a diversion-that is, you can suddenly begin to talk of something else, as though it had a bearing on the matter in dispute. This may be done without presumption that the diversion has some general bearing on the matter.

30. Make an appeal to authority rather than reason. If your opponent respects an authority or an expert, quote that authority to further your case. If needed, quote what the authority said in some other sense or circumstance. Authorities that your opponent fails to understand are those which he generally admires the most. You may also, should it be necessary, not only twist your authorities, but actually falsify them, or quote something that you have entirely invented yourself.

31. If you know that you have no reply to the arguments that your opponent advances, you by a fine stroke of irony declare yourself to be an incompetent judge.
Example: "What you say passes my poor powers of comprehension; it may well be all very true, but I can't understand it, and I refrain from any expression of opinion on it." In this way you insinuate to the audience, with whom you are in good repute, that what your opponent says is nonsense. This technique may be used only when you are quite sure that the audience thinks much better of you than your opponent.

32. A quick way of getting rid of an opponent's assertion, or of throwing suspicion on it, is by putting it into some odious category.
Example: You can say, "That is fascism" or "atheism" or "superstition." In making an objection of this kind you take for granted:
1. That the assertion or question is identical with, or at least contained in, the category cited; and
2. The system referred to has been entirely refuted.

33. You admit your opponent's premises but deny the conclusion.
Example: "That's all very well in theory, but it won't work in practice."

34. When you state a question or an argument, and your opponent gives you no direct answer, or evades it with a counter-question, or tries to change the subject, it is sure sign you have touched a weak spot, sometimes without intending to do so. You have, as it were, reduced your opponent to silence. You must, therefore, urge the point all the more, and not let your opponent evade it, even when you do not know where the weakness that you have hit upon really lies.

35. Instead of working on an opponent's intellect or the rigor of his arguments, work on his motive. If you succeed in making your opponent's opinion-should it prove true-seem distinctly prejudicial to his own interest, he will drop it immediately.
Example: A clergyman is defending some philosophical dogma. You show him that his proposition contradicts a fundamental doctrine of his church. He will abandon the argument.

36. You may also puzzle and bewilder your opponent by mere bombast. If your opponent is weak or does not wish to appear as if he has no idea what you are talking about, you can easily impose upon him some argument that sounds very deep or learned, or that sounds indisputable.

37. Should your opponent be in the right but, luckily for you, choose a faulty proof, you can easily refute it and then claim that you have refuted the whole position. This is the way in which bad advocates lose good cases. If no accurate proof occurs to your opponent, you have won the day.

38. Become personal, insulting and rude as soon as you perceive that your opponent has the upper hand. In becoming personal you leave the subject altogether, and turn your attack on the person by remarks of an offensive and spiteful character. This is a very popular technique, because it takes so little skill to put it into effect.

This is good

2010-05-03T23:15:00.001+01:00

Why do coffee shops gain?

2010-05-02T07:56:00.000+01:00

Is the recession really an opportunity?

Why?

You would do well to watch this brief video from the BBC on why coffee shops (particularly the branded chains) seemed to turn the recession to their advantage (source: tutor2u)

Oliver - homework

2010-05-02T03:10:00.001+01:00

Of the ten businesses identified, which is the best one to start now?

Oliver 1

2010-05-02T02:50:00.002+01:00

Examine and discuss the case for and against different businesses and industries receiving government financial support during a recession.

Oliver 2

2010-05-02T02:50:00.001+01:00

Explain and discuss the possible impact of the recession on stakeholders and on relationships between businesses and their stakeholders

Oliver 3

2010-05-02T02:49:00.000+01:00

Explain and illustrate strategies that businesses could have adopted to prepare for the recession

Oliver 4

2010-05-02T02:48:00.000+01:00

A2 Macroeconomics Textbook
Explain and evaluate the factors influencing the strategies businesses adopt in the recession

Oliver 5

2010-05-02T02:47:00.000+01:00

Explain and illustrate the long-term strategies and short-term plans adopted by businesses in the recession

Oliver - 6

2010-05-02T02:46:00.000+01:00

A2 Macroeconomics TextbookExplain how the recession can create opportunities and threats for businesses and industries

Life

2010-04-30T11:59:00.001+01:00

Reverse diabetes

2010-04-28T00:20:00.001+01:00

Simply Raw - Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days

ROCCO | MySpace Video

RIP?

2010-04-27T00:16:00.001+01:00

Paxman catches the libs out!

2010-04-14T15:33:00.000+01:00

Watch this from 12.30 onwards

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s67vd

Break-even

2010-04-13T01:42:00.001+01:00

Here

Women

2010-04-12T19:05:00.000+01:00

Sadness in Poland

2010-04-12T00:53:00.003+01:00

For Klaudia

2010-04-11T19:33:00.000+01:00

Tory Tax Cut

2010-04-06T15:39:00.001+01:00

Virtually the only journalist in the Sunday papers to question the wisdom of the Tory policy was the Sunday Times economics editor David Smith, incidentally next to a damning assessment of Sir Stuart Rose, the chairman of the Marks and Spencer, and one of those "successful businessmen" who - surprise, surprise - does not support an increase in NICs.

Smith made the simple point that shelving the NICs increase from April 2011 "represents an unmistakeable softening of the Tory Party's fiscal stance".

But Labour is slowly mustering four lines of attack.

First, the £6bn in efficiencies "identified" by Sir Peter Gershon and Dr Martin Read is based on both men each writing two sides of paper, hardly evidence-based policy making. As Mandelson pointed out yesterday on Sky News, neither man has made himself available for interview to explain how they came to their views on which the entire Tory edifice is built.

In interview last week I suggested to shadow chancellor George Osborne that Gershon and Read's work resembled the prejudicial musings of a couple of businessmen sharing a drink at the 19th hole. He replied, correctly, that he did not think I appeared to be the kind of person that frequented golf courses, before making the more serious case that these were senior businessmen, and Gershon had a track record in this area both with the British and Australian governments. Productivity in the public sector is just not rising fast enough. Indeed in the case of the NHS it is falling, Osborne argued. But the point remains this work is based on bald assertion, and should not be allowed to survive an election unchallenged.

Across the four pages of suggestions, it is hard to find a tangible proposal, beyond re-negotiate contracts, sweat assets more and sell property. Read does suggest that there should be a blanket policy of non-replacement of staff that leave. He asserts staff turn-over is running in the public sector at 8 %. But are the Tories backing a freeze in public sector recruitment, ie a reduction in the public sector labour force of 8 % in the the current year ? No, Osborne says he is not proposing any cut-backs to front line staff in schools and hospitals.

Second, Labour is also beginning to make the point that this £6bn in efficiencies looks increasingly like a straightforward cut. Cameron has himself said the £6bn cut will happen whether or not the efficiencies, ie higher productivity, are found. It will certainly be very hard to make £6bn in efficiency savings in such a short space of time if they are to be over and above the billions Labour has already committed to make in 2010-11.

Third, the Tory policy, as Brown will say in interviews today, will still be taking money out of the economy this year just when the recovery is most vulnerable.

Fourth, the Tory efficiency savings represents, according to the IFS, a 2.8% cut in spending in 2010-11 outside the three Tory ringfenced departments health, defence and overseas aid, broadly double the cut set out by Labour. Ed Balls at a teacher union conference tomorrow will claim the schools budget is specially vulnerable, saying the IFS figures suggests a £1.7bn cut to schools in 2010-11.

(Source: Guardian)

Used Cars

2010-04-04T12:44:00.001+01:00

Bargain cars for £2,000

Having £2,000 burning a hole in your pocket opens up a huge number of options for the used car buyer. Do you play it safe or opt for something ostentatious? What about fuel economy and running costs; and will it break down? There's a lot to consider, so here are our top five picks of used car peaches that deliver low-cost motoring, reliability and satisfaction. All the cars listed are widely available from used car dealers and private sellers with mileages of around 60,000.

Ford Ka
Search for Ford Kas on Yahoo! Cars

The Ford Ka is possibly the ultimate best used car buy around. There are thousands to choose from and most are in good condition. Those that are rusty and ropey are easy to spot - look for rot along the bottoms of the doors and around the door openings. Otherwise, the Ka is just about unbreakable thanks to a simple 1.3-litre engine that jumped from 59- to 69bhp in 2002.

We reckon £2,000 should bag you a very tidy 2005 Ka, which will have electric windows. Keep an eye out for cars with air conditioning and a CD player, though these will either cost more money or be snapped up quickly. When you grab a Ka bargain, you'll find it great to drive, though not as quiet as some more modern rivals. However, it's a cinch to park, frugal and will hold its value when you come to sell up.

Vauxhall Astra
Search for Vauxhall Astras on Yahoo! Cars

Vauxhall's Astra has always lived in the shadows of the Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf. For this very reason it makes a brilliant used buy for those on a tight budget, as prices are lower than for its more obvious rivals of the same age and mileage. The fact that the Astra is also good to drive is a welcome bonus.

The five-door hatchback is the most common model, though the three-door looks sportier and the estate is more practical. Our vote goes to a 2002 1.6 LS model fitted with air conditioning. Reliable, rugged and with only around 60,000 miles on the clock, this Astra has years of sterling service left in it. The engine is keen; servicing is penny-chew cheap at any independent garage and the Astra is insurance friendly. You can also expect 40mpg economy, fine comfort and decent refinement.

Mazda MX-5
Search for Mazda MX-5s on Yahoo! Cars

You're not going to get a sporty roadster for £2,000, are you? Wrong. The Mazda MX-5 in its original shape may be getting on a bit, with the youngest at least 12 years old now, but this is one tough little sports car. Mazda's reliability and build quality are legendary and it shows in the MX-5. Buy according to condition rather than age or mileage. Only things to look for are rust on the wheelarches and boot lid. Cars at this price should have a fully-stamped service history, though the engine has near-bombproof ruggedness.

Make sure the soft-top is in good condition as replacing it is pricey, and check the carpets are bone dry to prove the hood is leak-free. Otherwise, just enjoy the zingy engine and performance, short, sweet gear change and precise handling - and all with the added pleasure of fresh-air fun. Running costs are manageable and any good garage can keep an MX-5 in tip-top nick. And the best thing? Prices are going up for well cared-for, early MX-5s with the pop-up headlights, so you could be bagging a future classic car.

Rover 75
Search for Rover 75s on Yahoo! Cars

Rover may now be a footnote in British car history, but the 75 is still very much a part of the modern world. Easily the best car - and best built - Rover ever made, the 75 is superb value for money compared to its German executive rivals. Okay, so the 75 isn't as sharp to drive as a BMW 3 Series, but it's wonderfully comfortable, quiet and has a relaxed nature none of the Germans come close to.

The brilliant 2.0-litre turbodiesel is beyond our £2,000 budget unless you're prepared to buy a car with high mileage. The turbocharged 1.8-litre petrol model certainly isn't outside the budget and it comes with 150bhp for 0-62mph in 9.1 seconds, yet still averages 35.3mpg. The saloon is more common, but you will also find the spacious Tourer estate for similar money. Look for a 2003 car in Club SE or Connoisseur trim for the best mix of equipment and value.

SEAT Alhambra
Search for SEAT Alhambras on Yahoo! Cars

Taking the whole family out without busting the bank can be tricky, but SEAT's Alhambra MPV sorts this. It has seven seats inside its spacious cabin and all five of the individual rear chairs can be folded or removed altogether to vary load and passenger space to fit your needs. Build quality is good, but look for signs of hard use, such as scuffed plastics around the interior. Avoid any car that has been used as a mini-cab as it will have had a tough life.

A couple of thousand pounds will bag a 2001 Alhambra with the punchy 1.8-litre turbo engine, but diesel Alhambras with reasonable miles cost more. No matter, as the petrol engine is refined and cruises happily on the motorway. Fuel, service and insurance costs are all easy on the wallet, while re-sale values should bear up well as demand for well looked-after MPVs is always strong. All this and the SEAT drives more like a good estate car than an MPV to be a top used buy.

Playwriting Course

2010-04-02T11:36:00.001+01:00

Just click here for full details

is it OK to be fat?

2010-03-24T12:52:00.001Z

Your views?

Revolution

2010-03-24T12:34:00.000Z

Theatre review

2010-03-24T01:29:00.001Z

‘Loving April’ by Melvin Burgess, was published in September 1996. It is currently available at Amazon from £0.01 upwards. Giles Croft adapted the novel for the Oxfordshire Theatre Company who are currently on tour. I saw the 2 hour play at Chipping Norton Theatre on March 23rd.

‘Loving April’ stars Sarah Thomas-Lane (Outside Edge, Cat and No Mouse, The Emperors Clothes) as April, a deaf and dumb girl who is mistreated by boys in her village. This ‘mistreatment’ includes sexual abuse (including rape). It doesn’t matter that April can just about make noise – no-one is listening. Brilliantly played by Sarah, the pathos, the humiliation, the sadness is conveyed to the audience. In the final few seconds we even suspect that the tears shown by April are also the tears of the actress playing her, such is her commitment to the role.

To counter-balance April we have Tony, the rich boy. Admirably played by Daniel Naddafy (Snow Dragon, A Tourists Guide to Terrorism) we meet someone else who needs a friend.

But a friend from the same class, not the daughter of a char-lady.

As their relationship deepens so do prejudices surface until finally……no, I’ll not say any more.

Go and see the play – wherever and whenever you can. Read the book, immerse yourself in the story. Experience the strict social setting, imagine the beauty of April’s swan and feel repulsed by the attitude of some of the characters played by Jack Hughes (Stovepipe, Easy Virtue) and Tracey-Anne Liles (Und, Hanako, 4:48 Psychosis.)

Special praise too, to Helen Barford (Salome, ad campaigns for Tesco and Actimel) as Mrs Piggott.

Using this play as a yardstick, also go and watch Vertigo and Handful of Henna.

Distorted Mirror

2010-03-23T13:55:00.001Z

It's called Reflections in a Distorted Mirror.

FRIDAY NIGHT!

THIS WEEK

You should all go to the Oxford Fringe!

2010-03-23T13:35:00.003Z

Here is the site.....

These are the plays I am going to:

The Big Bite-Size Soirée

The Big Bite-Size Soirée

Reflections in a Distorting Mirror

What is the truth about Wikipedia?

2010-03-17T14:25:00.001Z

Teaching Higher Order thinking

2010-03-17T14:21:00.001Z

It's one thing for educators to teach to tests that offer learners certification that proves they've mastered key facts and concepts that panels of experts deem necessary for an 'educated' person to know.

It's another thing altogether to help learners exploit their native curiosity and continuously improve their higher order thinking so they are able to solve the endless stream of complex problems that everyday life delivers. It's true, as Tony Karreer says, life is mostly an open book test.

For many years, Bloom's Taxonomy has offered teachers and learners some useful distinctions that help break down complex tasks into structured learning experiences that allow people to build on their success.

The early taxonomy began with knowledge, understanding, and application as lower level skills and cast higher level skills as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

However, getting learners engaged - and keeping them engaged - in the increasingly busy and 'noisy' information environment of the 21st century seems to be presenting new challenges.

In 2001, Anderson and Krathwohl adapted Bloom's model to fit the needs of today by employing more outcome-oriented language, workable objectives, and changing nouns to active verbs.

Most notably, knowledge was converted to remember. In addition, the highest level of development is now called create, rather than evaluate.

Recently, Barbara Clark (2007) provided an adaptation of Bloom's work to facilitate active learning.

This circle is called the Cognitive Taxonomy Circle:

I find Clark's tool useful when I need to respond to learners' needs directly, actively, and specifically. I use it to help me meet learners of all ages - and all abilities - where they are in their personal inquiry, not where I am, or where I think they ought to be.

When I'm able to do this, engagement seems to take care of itself.

Konrad's homework

2010-03-15T12:18:00.001Z

A Farmer – let’s call him ‘Farmer Richard from Germany’ is concerned about his prize cow, Doris. He is worried – the good times may be over.

“Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei.” He thinks.

He is so concerned that when his dairyman tells him that Doris is in the field, happily grazing, he says he needs to know for certain. He doesn't want just to have a 99 per cent idea that Doris is safe, he wants to be able to say that he knows Doris is okay.

Farmer Richard (from Germany) goes out to the field and standing by the gate sees in the distance, behind some trees, a white and black shape that he recognises as his favourite cow. He goes back to the dairy and tells his friend that he knows Doris is in the field.

At this point, does Farmer Richard really know it?

The dairyman says he will check too, and goes to the field. There he finds Doris, having a nap in a hollow, behind a bush, well out of sight of the gate. He also spots a large piece of black and white paper that has got caught in a tree.

Doris is in the field, as Farmer Richard thought.

But was he right to say that he knew she was?

Karma

2010-03-11T17:37:00.001Z

What have these three got in common?

TWO OF THEM did extra essays for me - which I marked.

The other one did a daily blog.

So what did they all do?

WHAT THEY WERE TOLD TO DO.

And they all got grade A !

Only one other person got grade A - and he taught Economics!

Ten Days Out

2010-03-07T11:24:00.001Z

1. Lunch in Madrid
Same day return flights from London Stansted to Madrid with Ryanair cost £32.48 in mid-May, giving about four hours in the city from noon. That should leave enough time and Euros for a lunch in the Plaza Mayor, plus some shopping or a look at the highlights of the Prado (pictured), one of the world's great galleries

2. Luxury in London
In London, your money will stretch to breakfast at The Wolseley (full English and a double espresso, £17), an exhibition such as Painting History: Delaroche and Lady Jane Grey at the National Gallery (adults, £8), a snack lunch, afternoon tea at The Ritz (£38) and supper at Zilli Green in Soho (about £25)

3. Spa day in Bath
Visit Bath's Spas Ancient and Modern package gives you a two-hour session at the Thermae Bath Spa, a ticket to the original Roman baths and a three-course lunch at the Pump Room for £59. Throw in a cream tea at The Royal Crescent Hotel (£12.50) and advance return train fares from London (£19)

4. Parisian chic
Return tickets from London St Pancras to Paris on Eurostar start at £69. Arrive late morning to wander from the station to the Latin Quarter for a "prix-fixe" lunch (about 15 Euros, with wine). Then catch an exhibition such as Yves Saint-Laurent: 40 years in the making at the Musee des Beaux Arts (11 Euros)

5. Cool Berlin
You can buy return flights from London Luton to the German capital in mid-April for less than £50 with Easyjet. Either take a full day to explore the city (with Libeskind's Jewish Museum a must) or arrive mid-afternoon for a cheap supper and a shabby-cool night out in Mitte before crashing at a hostel

6. Dublin's fair city
With a bit of notice, you should be able to find day return flights from London to Dublin with the budget airlines for about £30 to £60. Spend the day in the Georgian city centre or take a tour into Co. Wicklow to visit the ancient monastery of Glendalough (up to £30) in its spectacular lakeside setting

7. The Thames Valley
Return train fares from London Paddington to Henley start at about £26. Take a five-mile cab journey from the station to have lunch at The Crooked Billet (about £40), rated one of the country's best and most scenic country pubs. Return to Henley to explore and have tea at one of the riverside tea rooms (about £10)

8. Foodie Whitstable
Head to Whistable on the Kent coast (Return rail fares from London Victoria from about £25), where the Michelin-starred The Sportsman has a £55 nine-course lunch tasting menu. Walk that off on the beach before having half a dozen Whitstable oysters straight at the historic Wheelers Oyster Bar for £4.25

9. A castle in Krakow
Return flights from London Stansted to Krakow with Ryanair start at about £50 in mid-summer and allow for a full day in Poland's old royal capital. On arrival, you should head straight to Wawel castle (17 Zloty; £4) to beat the queues. Then on to the old town and Jewish quarter for lunch and an afternoon wander

10. Stately Norfolk
Take a train from London King's Cross to King's Lynn (£36.50 return), then a Norfolk Coasthopper bus on to Holkham (£5.90 return). Enjoy lunch at The Victoria (about £20) before visiting Holkham Hall (£11), considered one of the England's finest stately homes. Spend any extra time on Holkham's vast beach

Lex!

2010-03-02T16:43:00.001Z

http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/business-studies/comments/buss4-toolkit-june-2010-publication-date-update/?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Business+BUSS4+Update

?

2010-02-24T01:57:00.001Z

£90 book for free

2010-02-20T22:53:00.000Z

Check amazon....

...then download for free...

Advice from the Conservatives

2010-02-20T20:09:00.001Z

Exercise

2010-02-20T01:25:00.001Z

..it's a myth...

Targets

2010-02-19T03:21:00.001Z

This may be interesting for maths students.

This is a target to beat - especially for Oxbridge applicants!

Watch this

2010-02-18T00:52:00.001Z

Jamy Ian Swiss at Gel 2009 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

The winners St Clements!

2010-02-16T17:28:00.001Z

Latest developments

2010-02-14T03:26:00.000Z

This might appeal to some...

Born to Hope

2010-02-10T23:50:00.000Z

Social Enterprise

2009-11-18T19:57:00.000Z

Worth Watching!

2009-11-02T04:30:00.001Z

NLP

2009-09-03T23:46:00.000+01:00

Serious students should do this

Innocents

2009-07-21T16:06:00.002+01:00

Check this...then watch the below...then read this...

Warning

2009-06-25T00:03:00.000+01:00

WARNING.....

Free economics worksheets etc

2009-06-22T22:04:00.001+01:00

A2 and AS....