Google all the way

Dell PCs are to come preloaded with Google. At long last, the dominance of Microsoft on the desktop seems to coming to an end. But will Google end up dominating searches, rather like Microsoft 's current domination of the PC software market?

Google's software will be installed on Dell PCs

National cuisine horrors

Rotted shark, potato dumplings, grey meat, grey meat and yet more grey meat, fast food from an auto-dispenser - these are just some of the horrors awaiting the unsuspecting traveller wanting to taste the 'local cuisine' in parts of Europe. Britain didn't come off well either - as we eat more processed and industrial junk than any other EU country - at least the other countries ate 'real' food, albeit appalling food! Give me organic vegetables any day...

Rotted shark, anyone?

Be an organ donor

It is always heart wrenching when you hear of people dying after accidents, especially when they are children or young people with their whole life before them. But it happens. What can help though is donating those organs to give somebody else the chance of life. Children waiting for transplants also do better if they get a child sized organ, so the mother of this little boy is helping give life to possible 4 other children. So, thats what the second link does, it takes you to the site which explains how to register as a donor. Tell your friends and family that you are a donor, so they know that if anything happens to you, even though you are no longer there, you have helped somebody else, and given them the chance of a new life.


Organs of path crash boy donated

How to become a donor

Ladies that lunch

Today, I was able to be a lady that lunches. Had a 'study day' to try to catch up on my MA, but lunch was a much more attractive proposition. Hudson's in Birmingham. Good choice. Quiet, good menu, excellent company. On completion, I wasn't allowed to pay either - a late birthday treat. So thank you J.

Sailing by

The flagship of Brittany Ferries was in trouble crossing the Bay of Biscay earlier this week when huge 40foot waves crashed through windows and flooded cabins. It had to put into Roscoff for repairs, and today it set back out on a routine crossing from Plymputh to Roscoff with 1330 brave passengers on board. They were still drying out the carpets. Not sure whether I would want to cross to Santander in it yet...

Wave-hit ferry to set sail again

I want one!

Invisibility cloaks are on the way. The science behind them is quite mindboggling, but they could have a negative impact on society as regards security etc. But they idea of NOT having to be seen by people you are trying to avoid, especially when you pop out to the supermarket looking as if you have been dragged through a hedge backwards, does appeal. Perhaps they could be made big enough to hide eyesores in our towns and cities...

Invisibility cloaks in sight

Which came first? The chicken or the egg?

The egg. A panel of experts have decreed thus, so we must accept it as true... What worries me a tad, is the fact that it was a debate arranged to coincide with the launch of the Chicken Little dvd...

Surname to match your job

An officer with Staffordshire Police is called Inspector Spoor...

We can all make mistakes

Not often we see a polar bear going base over apex, but it makes me feel good to know that even these superbly adapted animals can goof up occasionally.

Condoms, not saying no, is what will help women in Africa

Yet again, a woman dies in Africa from Aids. Infected by her husband, who then abandoned her, unable to afford retroviral drugs, she died leaving a daughter. Many of the Aids victims in Africa are monogamous women, yet the moralistic Christian right refuse to realise that condoms are an essential part of the fight against Aids. 'In the drive for a sexual counterrevolution, condoms are not being abandoned, but they are promoted and distributed only to “high risk groups” such as prostitutes, intravenous drug users, migrant workers and, in the general population, to married couples where one partner is HIV-positive and the other is not. Young people in particular, at desperate risk of infection, are told: “Just say no".'

Killing them with morality

The wonders of ancient civilisations

An ancient pyramid built 4000 years ago in the Andes is a sophisticated clock linked to movements of the stars, enabling priests to tell farmers that it was time to plant crops, expect flooding of rivers etc. To the peasants it must have seemed like magic - but it was all a con - the priests were able to interpret the alignments of the stars with the pyramid - but it shows how advanced these so-called primitive cultures were. Amazing.

Pyramid is giant farming clock

Market forces don't work in the NHS

When will they learn that dealing with people, and dealing with ill people is NOT like making widgets in a factory. Sir Digby Jones is going on again about how 'fair markets' principles are not being applied to rigorously enough to the NHS. I went to a lecture the other evening by a Professor from Yale University, who was scathing about the way in which these free market principles are destroying the NHS. He had no problem with managing the NHS to be efficient, but it as the 'fads and fancies' of the management jargon he took issue with. Perhaps we should leave well alone, and not just jump to the latest tune.

Primary Care - Jitters as new providers fear marriage of inconvenience

Guantanamo

Please shut this place immediately. It is offensive to humanity that the USA still maintains that it is in the interests of their security that it still exists. We don't expect humans to be treated in this way, and the sooner the US realises that they can't just ignore international treaties that they have signed up to the better.

U.S. Should Close Prison in Cuba, U.N. Panel Says

Dixie Chicks

A new album from the Dixie Chicks is out on Tuesday - 'Taking the Long Way'. After seeing the drop in sales of their last album, 'Home' after the anti-Bush comments by Natalie Maines [which were totally justified], lets hope that people do go and buy this one, as they are great musicians and make country music you want to listen to.

The Dixie Chicks: America Catches Up With Them

Endangered bananas

I had no idea that most bananas sold in the UK were mainly from one variety - the 'Cavendish' [sounds VERY aristocratic though!]. However, this fact opens bananas up to attack from a nasty fungus called Sigatoka, which could wipe out whole plantations of bananas in places like Latin America. Scientists are trying to find wild varieties which they can cross with the Cavendish, but wild banana species are being eliminated at a massive rate by deforestation. Will bananas return to being a luxury food item in the UK? Perhaps so, if they continue to rely on one strain of plant, and don't widen the gene pool somehow.

Banana drama

Pheasant 1 - Farmer 0

A really vicious little blighter has been terrorising a farmer in Gloucestershire. Every time he goes into one of his fields it attacks him, and even runs after his Land Rover for half a mile to check he HAS really left his territory. Apparently he parades up and down on the bonnet of the Land Rover, and according to the farmer is quite intimidating, staring at him with his beady little eyes. Simple solution - shoot the bugger, and make him into a pie!

Fierce pheasant has farmer on run

An Elephant roaming the streets of London

And I won't be able to see him... 'The Sultan's Elephant' will run for three days on the streets of London, and the star of the show is a mere 42tonne, mechanical, time travelling pachyderm. The elephant will make it's first appearance tomorrow near Horseguards Parade. Also included in the performance is a Routemaster bus...

The elephant in the green room

Women need to learn how to 'do leisure'

Ask most women how they spend their leisure time, and according to Germaine Greer, we go shopping. But this isn't leisure, its work, and we need to fight to get ourselves used to real leisure - and I don't mean housework - where huge conglomerates make us feel guilty for not eradicating every last bug in our houses. I feel vindicated that I am not a super housewife, and that muddy pawprints still have a place in my house - but it would be nice to have time which I can waste without a) feeling guilty about it and b) contributing to the profits of large companies. I am working on it.

Why women don't relax

Face to face interviews for a passport

Not just for first time applicants - apparently by 2009, even those renewing their passports will have to go along to one of the 69 newly announced passport offices for a personal interview. More time and expense wasted. But I have to be positive - it will create jobs, and some of those will be at graduate level, and be good news for my unemployed graduates looking for local work!

Passport interviews to be compulsory for all

Plight of Vietnamese elephants

Apparently there are only 76 wild elephants left in Vietnam, due mainly to deforestation and hunting. Scientists are to establish 3 reserves to help protect the remaining wild elephants, but 76 is a very small number to build up a viable population from - so lets hope they can perform miracles and prevent the extinction of these wonderful animals.

Trumpeting the plight of elephants

Mooving objects

If you are driving around Minchinhampton, just be careful - you might find yourself bumper to horn with a cow. They are let out to graze the common each year to help the ecological balance, and as they have no real awareness of the highway code, it is recommended that you treat them with respect, and avoid running into them.

Drivers warned to beware of cows

University league tables

Today saw the publication of the university league tables, and once again Oxford just pipped Cambridge to the post for first place. It is nice to see some of the newer universities making a strong showing in individual subject tables, and it was also interesting to see a table showing the your tariff points, and then it producing a list of the universities in that tariff band/subject. Will it help youngsters make any more of an informed decision? Not sure about that one, but I am sure that lots of middle class parents will be poring over it, and exerting even more pressure on their offspring.

Oxford tops Guardian rankings again

Finally - Berlusconi hands in his notice

Only took him four weeks to finally realise that defeat means that you lose your job. We can now see what Romano Prodi does with the Italian government. Only in Italy could this state of affairs happen!

Berlusconi resigns as Italian PM