UK schools are to be transformed into learning and community centres serving the needs of hard working families
said Ruth Kelly, the UK Education Secretary, as she announced the biggest overhaul of the school timetable for decades. Teaching the curriculum and preparing children for exams will be only part of the wide-ranging services every school will be expected to offer from 2010. They will open their doors early for breakfast and provide after school clubs and child care until six in the evening. The premises will no longer be used for 39 weeks a year but will stay open to provide child care in school holidays
Same-sex couples are to be allowed to adopt children under a radical overhaul of adoption laws in Scotland. In the first major change to the laws governing adoption for 25 years, unmarried couples, including gay couples, will be able to adopt jointly. At present, only married or single people can adopt and although homosexual or unmarried couples can currently raise children, only one can be recognised as the legal parent
I’ve been looking at the City Rail logo and have thought of some enhancements that would truly reflect the quality of service they offer their commuters.
Crude – yes.
Childish – yes.
Truthful – fuck yeah!
The US Supreme Court has refused to sanction the use of marijuana for medical purposes, dashing the hopes of thousands of patients using the drug for pain relief. By a vote of six to three, the court refused to allow residents in 10 states to use the drug with a doctor’s permission and under highly regulated conditions. The ruling means federal authorities in 10 states may arrest terminally ill patients who use the drug as well as those who provide it to them. But some states remain defiant, saying medical certificates authorising marijuana will still be dispensed
Bob Geldof is aiming to galvanise the world to aid Africa with his Live 8 concerts next month and thousands of people will demonstrate in Scotland as leaders of the world’s richest nations gather for a summit there
The Washington Post today confirmed that W Mark Felt, a former number-two official at the FBI, was Deep Throat, the secretive source who provided information that helped unravel the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s and contributed to the resignation of president Richard Nixon. The confirmation came from Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate story, and their former top editor, Benjamin C Bradlee
Amnesty International has accused governments around the world, including Australia’s, of abandoning their commitments to human rights in the so-called war on terror
. The human rights group said the international community lacked the willpower and the means to prevent and punish atrocities. Amnesty’s 308-page annual review covered 145 countries. In it, it said the anti-terrorism tactics used have not only failed to prevent attacks on civilians, but encouraged what it described as the rampant abuse of human rights
Finland has received what appears to be the first doctoral dissertation on traditional forest trolls. Master of Philosophy Camilla Asplund Ingemark, 30, has researched the subject for six years. She will defend her doctoral dissertation, which is classified as a work on folklore, at the Åbo Akademi University in Turku. The study describes the world of trolls according to the beliefs in the folklore of Swedish-speaking Finns — via Improbable Research
Sporadic shooting continued today in an eastern Uzbek city where an uprising sparked a crackdown by security forces that left up to 500 people dead, and a human rights group reported that clashes in another town killed an additional 200
Animal Liberation Victoria‘s ten year fight to shut down the Learmonth puppy farm, the largest in Australia, has ended in victory with Ballarat Council announcing the farm will close at the end of July 2005. The misery is almost over for the dogs, but not for owner Dr Ron Wells who has been called up before the Victorian Veterinary Registration Board and asked to explain cruelty and neglect allegations
Brazil has rejected the retarded monkey boy‘s AIDS-relief money because it came with strings attached: a requirement to condemn prostitution, rather than working with sex-workers to promote safe sex. The Bush AIDS money comes with requirements to block abortion, birth control and sex education in favour of abstinence programs — via BoingBoing
Interesting follow up on the story concerning the killing of an italian senior intelligence agent by US Forces during an hostage rescue mission (AKA the Sgregna Case). Yesterday the Italian public received this PDF file containing an extremely detailed US military report on the alleged accident. Many lines in the report were blacked out
as the author probably considered them unclassified, yet sensible information (like the name who the guy who shot the car). It turns out the author don’t know jack about PDF and here is the unblackened report [DOC Format] in all its details, most probably exposed by some computer savvy guy in italian media — via MetaFilter
Four witnesses say the drug-dealer, Man Singh Ghale, who Indonesian police claimed died while resisting arrest [BugMeNot] was well enough to smile at neighbours and walk to a police car after being shot in the leg. Wouldn’t want the bloke implicating half the Indonesian police force for corruption now, would we? Offing him behind closed doors ties up loose ends nicely and makes for a handy scapegoat
According to an US International Trade Commission report, Israel is among the world’s worst offenders when it comes to violation of intellectual property rights
The retarded monkey boy has signed into law the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act. A lawbreaker can land in jail for up to three years for distributing a single copy of a prerelease movie on the Internet. The MPAA’s president Dan Glickman applauded the move, stating he wanted to thank the congressional sponsors of this legislation for their strong advocacy for intellectual property rights
Thousands of the amphibians have died in recent days in a pond in Hamburg’s Altona district, with their bodies swelling to bursting point. The toads’ entrails are propelled for up to a metre, in scenes that have been likened to science fiction — via meta-roj blog
The French courts have banned DRM copy-protection on DVDs [english], because it is a consumer right to make a backup or to change formats — via BoingBoing
Google Maps UK and Google Local UK have been launched, confirming speculations that the search engine giant would continue to expand its regional services to an international audience
Gary Stern is president and owner of Stern Pinball, which is the last remaining pinball manufacturer in the world. Yearly, his company produces 10,000 hand-built machines and designs about 3-4 different models via Shacknews
Impatient TV viewers have discovered BitTorrent in Australia mainly because the local networks are so slow to broadcast content. Programs are at times behind by months and, in some cases, years. According to an independent study, it takes an average of four months to watch the latest episodes of top-rated shows like Lost
and Desperate Housewives
. There are now calls for TV networks to consider offering episodes for download at a small cost
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