The starfish and the spider: the ... GRAVESEND: Literacy group rises from ashes to win award (From Ne GRAVESEND: Literacy group rises from ashes to win award 4:59pm Tuesday 11th May 2010 in News By Abigail Foulkes AN ADULT literacy group that rose from the ashes after being closed down is set to receive a national award. Sue Gorton’s English Group will be given the National Group prize at the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) awards ceremony in Westminster on Friday (May 21). The group, which has 11 members and meets weekly in St Aidan's Way, Gravesend, re-opened independently after its classes at the Victoria Centre in Gravesend were cut in 2006 due to a lack of funding. Determined to continue, members united to raise £1,000 to cover course costs through luncheons and raffles. Mrs Gorton said: "We are extremely proud that a small group like ours should get national recognition. “This is a remarkable story of perseverance and determination by a group of adults who have discovered the joy of learning together." People who read this article also read
Face-to-face time makes us happier than Facebook - News, Gadgets The Happiness Barometer, conducted in 16 countries across the globe, was based on the Coca-Cola Happiness Index, which surveyed between 500 to 1,000 people per country. Almost two-fifths, or 40 per cent, of those surveyed said catching up with their loved ones after work was the happiest time of their day, while more than 20 per cent said they were happiest when eating with their families. By contrast, only 5 per cent said they were happiest when connecting with friends online, and even less - 2 per cent - said the first text message of the day made them joyful. Families and partners were, by far, the biggest source of happiness for almost 80 per cent of those surveyed, with friends coming up next at 15 per cent. "Despite our celebrity driven culture, fame is not likely in itself to be a primary source of happiness.
Swiss Army Style Laser, Fan, and Flashlight Accessories For The Who knew that the headphone jack on your iPhone could be so freaking functional?! Perhaps anticipating the release of no-brainer summer blockbuster MacGruber, HMB Tec has a host of gadgets that plug right into your iPhone headphone jack and turn your device into an oscilloscope, stethoscope, thermometer, or pocket fan–whichever necessary tools your dire situation requires. The accessories cost between $20 and $90 (not including shipping) and HMB TEC’s apps cost between $ 0.99 and $4.99. Via recombu.comRelated Tim Cox is big time into coffee, craft beer, Super Street Fighter IV, and Apple products.
Grammar Tip -- Lie down to rest or lay down to rest? EXPLANATION: Basic Rule: These verbs are often misused. By using the following rule, the misuse will be minimized. The verb "to lay" must ALWAYS have a direct object (a noun that receives the action of the verb) EXAMPLE: I lay the papers on the desk. Papers is the direct object of the verb LAY. Any time a form of the verb LAY is used, it must have a direct object. The verb "to lie" NEVER has a direct object. By following this simple rule, you will never misuse these verbs again! EXAMPLE: Incorrect: Mom often lays down to rest after work. For further information regarding the grammar initiative, you may contact Terry Reale.
DWP commits to major IT changes - 19 May 2010 - Computing DWP is to make wide-ranging changes to its IT infrastructure The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) is to make wide-ranging changes to its IT infrastructure in an effort to achieve efficiency savings equivalent to £1.4bn imposed by the previous Labour government, under the five-year Comprehensive Spending Review, currently in its final year. The Department has suffered from poorly executed IT projects in the past and more recently operations have been bothered by strikes by Unite worker at HP's EDS division. In its recently published business plan for 2010-11, the DWP is to negotiate a new contract for desktop services from September 2010 valued at some £200m per annum over six years, which the report says “will provide savings of some 20 per cent.” The department signed a desktop services contract with Fujitsu in February this year and an infrastructure contract with BT in the same month. The department also plans to dispose of a further 10 buildings saving £7m per annum.
Digital exclusion: "Learning IT skills changed my lif 23 May 2010Last updated at 16:43 By Joanne Babbage Business reporter, BBC News, North London Annmarie Niles is about to start a degree in Digital Media In September, Annmarie Niles, 24, starts a degree in Digital Media at London Metropolitan University. Remarkable, really, given that just 18 months ago she did not know how to send an email. "If someone had said to me I'd be going to University and doing a degree using computers I'd never ever have believed them," she says. Ms Niles has been having free computer lessons at the Islington Computer Skills Centre based at Finsbury Library in London. "Had it not been for coming here I would never have got on the path I'm on now," she says "I didn't like computers before because I didn't know how to use them. The unemployed mother has also secured an interview for a receptionist job to tide her over the summer. "There's hardly anything I can't do now." Building confidence A new student at the centre is Sarah Nevin, 25. Job skills Funding worries
Government needed to take out botnets, says expert | Latest Indu Government involvement is necessary in order to take out malware botnets, according to one expert. Sebastian Zabala, a security expert and senior project manager for the UK and Sweden for Panda Security, said if security firms take out botnets themselves then they become an 'attacker'. It follows the news that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has shut down a rogue internet service provider (ISP). The illegal ISP has been ordered to turn over $1.08 million (£750,000) after the FTC permanently shut it down for recruiting, hosting and participating in the distribution of spam, spyware and other illegal and malicious content. The expert explained that in countries where collaboration between the government and security companies is strained, botnets could now be more likely to arise. 'We're seeing that in countries where, for example, you [security firms] can have a hard time collaborating with the government, it has become the preferred placement of the servers,' he said.
Neal Stephenson to Bring His Metaverse To The App Store With “Th When people first started playing with the iPad, a common comparison was to the interactive, tablet-like book (, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer: a Propædeutic Enchiridion) featured in best-selling author Neal Stephenson’s steampunk sci-fi novel A Diamond Age, so it seems like a natural fit that Stephenson will soon be coming to iPad with an app of his own. The project’s called The Mongoliad, a wonderfully stupid title that sounds like a gag from the lost sequel to John Barth’s Sotweed Factor. But the idea is sound: Stephenson and a few fellow authors including Greg Bear and Nicole Galland will be releasing a set of serialized stories to the App Store, presenting “an ongoing stream of nontextual, para-narrative and extra-narrative stuff” that will allow readers to interact and create their own stories in the Mongoliad universe with some “pretty cool tech.” Related
'Long-term harm' of too much TV for toddlers The more TV a toddler watches, the higher the likelihood they will do badly at school and have poor health at the age of 10, researchers warn. The study of 1,300 children by Michigan and Montreal universities found negative effects on older children rose with every hour of toddler TV. Performance at school was worse, while consumption of junk foods was higher. UK experts said parents could allow young children to watch "some" high quality TV. The study, part of the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development Main Exposure, asked parents how much TV their children watched at 29 months (two years and five months) and 53 months (four years and five months). On average, the two-year-olds watched just under nine hours of TV per week, while for four-year-olds the average was just under 15 hours. But 11% of the two-year-olds and 23% of four-year-olds watched more than the recommended maximum of two hours of TV a day. 'Common sense' 'Radical'
Welcome to the Apple Store - Apple Store (U.K.) YouTube's First Video Uploaded Five Years Ago Today Although YouTube's birthday is officially February 14, 2005, the first video was actually uploaded to the site exactly five years ago, on April 23, 2005. The video is titled "Me at the zoo." It was shot by Yakov Lapitsky and it's only 19 seconds long, showing one of YouTube's founders, Jawed Karim, at the San Diego Zoo. The video doesn't look like much, but it sparked a revolution; by July 2006, more than 65,000 videos were uploaded to the site every day. In October that same year Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion — a reminder of how fast things move in the age of the Internet. See the first ever YouTube video below.