BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Tony Hart forced to give up art
TV artist Tony Hart has said that not being able to draw any more is “the greatest cross I have to bear”.
The 83-year-old has been robbed of the use of his hands after having two strokes, he told The Times newspaper.
“It has been my [...]
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Somewhat under a week ago, I ordered The Fresco (Gollancz S.F.) from the library. Was quite impressed when I went in to pay off fines to discover it had arrived already. I like Tepper, I’ve mentioned that once or twice before, but even I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Spoilers below, though not drastically [...]
We had a full timetable of events this weekend, it’s my sister’s birthday tomorrow, so yesterday we all met up for a family meal at a curry house in Bil’s village. It was quite a subdued event, I think it was our first normal event without Katrin iyswim, and I can’t have been the only [...]
I have been going on about this writer for a while. She’s been writing a blog to get out of doing tours and signings and instead her fans on blog started a campaign to get her to do a signing as well. I would love to be able to support it by being there, but [...]
How will we cope in a world that can no longer rely on cheap and plentiful supplies of the one commodity – oil – that keeps it going? Guests: Matthew Simmons, CEO, Energy Investment bank Simmons & Co. Richard Heinberg, Senior fellow, Post Carbon Institute John Hemming MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary group [...]
At the weekend I found a diary that I kept for around 18 months in the late 90s. It details a relationship or two, a job or two, my state of mind, and most particularly, at least to my state of mind tonight, it details the evening when I called my parents’ house to find [...]
Just been at www.scotland.gov.uk, “website of the Scottish Government”, and at www.wales.gov.uk, where there are in fact two web sites – “National Assembly for Wales website” www.assemblywales.org and, oddly, the Welsh Assembly Government website at new.wales.gov.uk (why ‘new’?).
Then I went to www.england.gov.uk. Nope, nothing doing. No Government for the English. How will we cope?
If you had purchased £1,000 of Northern Rock shares one year ago it would now be worth £4.95,
With HBOS, earlier this week your £1,000 of shares would have been worth £16.50,
£1,000 invested in XL Leisure would now be worth less than £5,
If you bought £1000 worth of Tennents Lager one year ago, drank it all, [...]
another car load of stuff.
I don’t think of us as particularly materialistic (stop sniggering at the back there) yet the amount of stuff is phenomenal, granted a lot of it is books, or things I should have got rid of but haven’t, but even so. Today I bagged up another bag of [...]
The security services planned the arrest of the journalist with painstaking care. They bugged her contacts and assembled an elite squad to take her down. On 8 May 2007, eight detectives swarmed into her home and seized her address book, mobile, laptops and bank statements. In a simultaneous raid, a second team searched her newspaper [...]
Not my usual reading, but these two articles by Peter Osborne in the Daily Mail caught my attention:-
Apocalypse Now?: New world order could have devastating implications for Western nations …. “The British economy is in the same position as the Texan coast earlier this month as Hurricane Ike approached — apparently calm, with life going [...]
For the first time that I noticed today, I thought ‘my sister had epilepsy’ rather than ‘my sister has epilepsy’. I still wake up occasionally forgetting that she’s gone, but at some points of the day, she’s moved to my past. I’m sure that this is a healthy change, but I’m also sure you’ll forgive [...]
Five-year-olds making better progress but one in seven can’t write name | Education | guardian.co.uk
Five-year-olds in England are making better progress, ministers said today, but one in seven still cannot write their name after a year at primary school.
Assessments showed that 14% of them struggle to write and one in 10 had trouble linking sounds [...]
BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Women to rule Rwanda parliament
Rwanda will be the first country where women will outnumber men in parliament, preliminary election results show.
Women have taken 44 out of 80 seats so far and the number could rise if three seats reserved for the disabled and youth representatives go to females.
Rwanda, [...]
If you don’t know what a Montessori Great Lesson is, or what it’s about, I recommend you tootle off to see Miss Barbara. If you’re wondering why you would do that with elementary age children (6 – 12), there’s a wiki page (isn’t there always a wiki page somewhere?) that explains it.
First of all, I [...]
Hobbit house saved from demolition as winds of change blow in pioneer’s favour – Times Online
Tony Wrench was toasting victory over the planners yesterday with a glass of wine made from the vines that grow on the turf roof of his wooden roundhouse.
After ten years of planning battles, during which he and his partner, Jane [...]
BBC NEWS | Education | Merger may see 3,500-pupil school
Parents and pupils are to be consulted over plans to merge three schools into one academy for 3,500 pupils.
On Tuesday councillors approved a period of consultation over what would be England’s largest school.
The merging of Greenwood Dale School, Elliott Durham School and Jesse Boot Primary in [...]
Over the last month or so, I’ve read a trilogy by Trudi Canavan, The Magicians’ Guild, The Novice, and The High Lord. I picked the first one up from the library on a whim and they were good enough that I ordered the second two, and devoured them within a day each time. They didn’t [...]
Master of the universe | Technology | The Observer
How important is it that his games teach as well as entertain? ‘I’m not sure teach is the right word,’ he says. ‘Computer games and simulations are much more powerful [as an aid] to motivate than to teach. I’d rather have a game that got a person [...]
