vrijdag 26 augustus 2011

Four children left orphaned after parents die in separate holiday falls


Link to original article:

During their holiday in Morocco, both Tilly and Roger Lamb, parents of four, passed away during separate falls. Tilly fell from the third flour of a rented home, but died several days later. After her death, her husband died in a different fall at a nearby hotel.

The parents, from the village of Pensham, near Pershore, leave behind their four children, whom likely are being cared for by one of Mrs Lamb's sisters.

Reverend Terry Henderson, who knew the family, says as their community is a small one, everyone knows each other quite well. When tragic events like this happen, the entire community is traumatised.

The causes of death of Mr and Mrs Lamb are yet unknown, and there are a lot of speculations. Nobody truly knows what happened.

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Shocked! I am absolutely shocked! Of course this is absolutely terrible for the family and friends of the Lambs, but I also understand this must be very hard for the entire community. Reading the article I found myself feeling sorry for the reverend as well, as he understands what the family is going through and tries to take care of people whom need the extra care.

I hope police investigation will reveal more about how exactly Mr and Mrs Lamb passed away, as this seems almost to terrible to be true. For both people to die in separate occasions simply is a tragic coincidence.

Lastly, I hope the children are taken care of and get the extra love they surely need at this moment.  
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dinsdag 23 augustus 2011

Police unveil app linking public to their nearest officer


Link to original article:

In Surrey, the police has created an application for smartphones, given the public the opportunity to contact near police officers and see what they are doing at that moment. Surrey Police hope to involve the public more in working together as a team with the police. Contacting near policemen should provide the public with a more humane view off the police.

Policing Minister Nick Herbert says the app is currently only available in the Runnymede area of Surrey. However, he hopes the app will be available across the county.

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Contacting the Police personally seems like quite a good idea. However, I have some initial thoughts about this app. I feel it is not the public's job to keep track of everything happening around them. And as the app provides the possibility of (almost) spying on what the police is doing, I fear the police will become less of an institution and more familiar.

It might be the public feels the app is a necessity. However, I do feel the police needs to keep some sense of superiority towards the public, as they are, in some way, the guardians of safety.

I do applaud the idea of involving the public in safety matters, but feel some members of the public might not be suited for personal contact with the police.
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It's Her Hitler! The bizarre plan to feed Nazi dictator female sex hormone to make him less aggressive


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During the Second World War, the British planned to put female hormones into Adolf Hitler's food, to reduce his unnecessary aggression. This plan, amongst other weird plans to win the Second World War, have been discovered by Professor Brian Ford, a pioneer of popular science.

The plan, although seemingly not serious at all, actually was to be gone through with. At the time, a scientific discovery proved hormones could be used to alter someone's personality. The hormones were already being used in sex therapy in London.

Poison would not have worked, as the dictator had people taste his food before eating it himself. Hormones would require a lot of eating to be effective, making it a more cunning and less likely to be found out.

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I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article, although I am a bit suspicious about why this has not been discovered yet.

It is a true pity the plan was not succeeded, as I would have very much liked to see a female version of Hitler.

Reading about plans to win the Second World War, I feel people had become really desperate. No one seemed to be able to defeat the Nazis by force. It surprises me how creative people become when desperate.  
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Cameron constituency youth workers to strike


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Due to the riots last summer, Prime Minister David Cameron has set-up a fightback against rioters.

As most of the rioters were young people, the Prime Minister wants to make sure these youngsters are controlled more.

Youth workers from Base 33, a youth centre, say they are angry because the Prime Minister did not mention anything to the public about cuts being made to local services.

More people from youth centres were left unsatisfied with David Cameron's plans. Some youth centres have to be closed, and others say some youth centres will no longer be open to everyone, as the new set-up only allows vulnerable people with problems to visit these centres. Youth centres were meant to be open to everyone, making some people worried about the plans of the Prime Minister.

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I fully understand the Prime Minister's idea. The government does not want to invest into youth centres not controlling the British youngsters. However, I do not feel the youth centres are to be held fully responsible to the riots that took place.

Furthermore, I feel it is important for David Cameron to talk to more people related to youth work, as this will surely increase his knowledge of what is important and what is not.

I do applaud the Prime Minister's intentions. The riots hit international news programmes, and made clear such riots are devastating to people's feeling of safety.  
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Anything for a tenor? Royal Opera House to hold costume sale


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The Royal Opera House in London is starting it's first sale of costumes outside of the Opera. Costumes have been sold before, but never took place outside of the Opera.

The costumes are being sold to make name for the Royal Opera House and to clear space for new costumes. Head of the company's costume workroom, Mal Barton, says the decision to sell the costumes somewhere else made a lot of sense, as a football pitch-sized warehouse in Aberdare was the perfect location to do so.

Costumes wore by famous people will surely be sold, as there are a lot of people who love the opera. Prizes will range between 20 pounds and 500 pounds, making costumes available for everyone interested.

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To me, it seems like a rather great idea selling costumes wore by singers and ballet dancers. Seeing an opera or a ballet, I can imagine people become big fans of certain acts. By making the costumes available for sale, fans and collectors are given the opportunity to buy pieces they admire. Furthermore, the prizes seem fairly reasonable, especially as some of the costumes are one of a kind pieces.

Reading several articles on the website of The Guardian, I did notice the simple writing, to be quite frank. Although I am not a native, and do not know as much about British newspapers as the natives do, I have to admit I find the articles in The Guardian of low quality.

On the other hand, the guardian has an arts correspondent, which should give a deeper look into art-related news. I hope to read more articles from different newspapers to find out which newspapers are of better quality than others.
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zondag 21 augustus 2011

Patriotic racing driver Lewis Hamilton has complained our national anthem is too short.


Lewis Hamilton, formula 1 driver, has complained about the British national anthem. He reckons it is too short. A comparison was made between the British national anthem, and the Brazilian.

Lewis complained after having to listen to the Brazilian anthem for almost two minutes, whereas the British national anthem was recently squeezed into 44 seconds.

Now, a British composer and cellist (Philip Sheppard) comes to the rescue. He is going to try his utmost recording arrangements of 205 different anthems for the 2012 Olympics. He will try making all the anthems around one minute long, making sure no one feels left behind.

Philip says some anthems have to be shortened, while other have to be made longer.

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Although I understand where Lewis' frustration comes from, I myself would not make a problem out of it. Having said that, I am not a sports-fan myself.

I feel it is hard to judge someone who is racing on behalf of a country. It seems rather logical to be at least slightly patriotic when you're an international racer and your victories mean your country has won.

Reading the article, I initially thought the article covered an American racer, as in general, Americans seem to be more patriotic than the Brits. It was a surprise finding out the article covered a British racer.

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donderdag 7 juli 2011

Ballerina ruling threatens care of the elderly


Elaine McDonald, a former ballerina, argued in court that she should be provided a night-time carer. She fears of leading a life without dignity, should she not get night-time care.

In court, only one of the five judges (Lady Hale) ruled in favour of Ms McDonald. Lady Hale says she is very much troubled by the Supreme Court's decision, which could mean the elderly will end up safe and sound, but without dignified lives.

Lord Brown, one of the four other judges, said Lady Hale is an expert on the matter of social care. However, he added he was surprised about her reaction to the court's decision.

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Reading the article, the first thing I noticed were a few spelling mistakes (nothing big really). This seems a bit unprofessional to me.

I am a bit confused about what to think about this article. There is plenty to say for more health care, especially for the elderly, who often find themselves in more isolated homes.

However, on the other hand (and this might sound a bit cruel), do we want to invest more money in the elderly when we can also spend that money on things like education? Fact is there is less money then we wish to spend. Choices have to be made and it is very difficult satisfying everyone's needs and wishes.

Having said that, I wish to state that care for the elderly is of vital importance. Especially from a moralistic point of view. Care for the elderly is a reward for there hard work in their past. Perhaps we need to make volunteer work mandatory (how silly that may seem).


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zaterdag 16 april 2011

Fury over church gay wed plan


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Same-sex couples living in the UK already can marry in civil ceremonies, but three political parties, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Green Party, have made plans to allow same-sex couples to get married in church as well. However, not everyone is happy with these plans.

Andrea Williams, of the Christian Legal Centre, says ideas like same-sex marriage assault the fundamentals of a modern society, where marriage can only take place between a man and a woman.

From the Nats, a spokewoman said they recognise all the different views on this topic, and propose a discussion on the topic.

Luckily, not all churches share the same opinion marriage is for straight couples only.

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Although I think the idea of marriage should be between a man and a woman only is discrimination, I myself would not want to get married by someone who is forced to perform the marriage. Someone's marriage should be the happiest day of his life, and thus all who are involved should be happy as well. I myself would simply look for someone happy to marry me, despite my sexual preference.

Still, the fact that there still are a lot of people opposed to gay marriage is a serious matter, as it is very likely some gay people will have to move in order to get in a gay-friendly environment.
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vrijdag 15 april 2011

Judge orders phone hacking test cases as victims press on with claims


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Newspaper company, News of the World, faces 20 court cases for hacking phones of famous people to retrieve information. Mr Justice Vos, who is the judge hearing the cases, told he wanted some test cases which would be heard first, as he fears for endless amounts of cases. He says some people might want to go on forever, but he prefers not to.

The main issues, regarding the cases, is not whether there was a conspiracy, but if voicemails were tapped, how often this happened, what was done with the information and what consequences this had on the victims. 

The hearings will continue next month.

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Reading the article, I was rather shocked. To me, it seems this is clearly violation of privacy. I fully understand the judge. With 20 similar cases, and more counting, it is very understandable not looking forward to the hearings and trying to find a way of speeding up the process. 

Considering the violation of privacy, I think the perpetrator (in this case News of the World) should not only have to pay a large amount of money to the victims, but get a serious warning as well. Of course, I do not know elaborate details of laws considering privacy, but to me, it seems important other newspapers do not violate privacy as well. It is important this does not happen again, even if that means people will not know everything about their favourite indoor designer.
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Private schools line up te become free


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Private schools in the UK are getting in line to become free schools. There are a lot of free schools wishing to expand and make their form of education available to more pupils. A good idea, it seems, but as is common, there are cons as well.

Surrounding state schools fear the money the government is going to spend on making private schools free, will financially harm them. As there already are state schools with financial problems, it seems fairly odd to them to send money to schools who do not have financial trouble.

The government insists parents and their children should have more choice in education. Each private school will be looked at separately. However, the shadow education secretary, Andy Burnham, says it is important to take the consequences for surrounding state schools in account as well.

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Reading the article, I was rather puzzled. To me, it seems important to give parents and their children options to choose, regarding education, but it seems weird to provide these options by funding private schools, without regulating the schools' curriculum. 

Interestingly enough, the article doesn't provide information on why private schools are a good choice for parents and their children. It does put out why money should go to state schools. Those have financial problems enough, resulting in outdated IT-equipment and delapidated classrooms.

In my opinion, money spend on education should firstly go to those in most need of it. If all schools have their basic needs met, and there is money left to spend on education, further plans can be made.
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