Internet + Education = Dumber kids

How many things did you own when you were in the fifth grade? Chances are high that your school books were your biggest assets when you were in fifth grade. There is no harm in children enjoying life early as long as they are in a position to extract more out of it. Don’t you think you would have understood complicated physics and mathematical problems better if you had access to the Internet?

You could have avoided relying on the theoretical and complicated explanations provided by the teacher in the classroom. You could have made use of the Internet and focused on various infographics and animations without any difficulty. Well, where is the increase in the intelligence of children now that they have access to such useful resources? Instead, what we are seeing is that the younger generation is becoming dumber.

Teachers are finding it difficult to inculcate basic concepts in children. This is a clear indication that the easy and posh life that the children are leading is affecting their intelligence and creativity. The world outside is very tough and unforgiving. We have reached where we have reached primarily because we have worked very hard for it.

Unfortunately, the future generation does not seem to be interested in taking the good work forward. Rather, they seem to be interested in enjoying the benefits without coming up with innovations and solutions of their own.

Last week I was disgusted to open up an email from a friend. Let me start again, it’s early…I opened up an email from a friend which disgusted me. Nothing to do with my friend’s lovely personality of course – this was more to do with what she was complaining about. And trust me, she had every right to complain. If what had happened to her had happened to me I’d have been in a rage in an instant!

The story went like this: she had ordered some pvc banners for her company. A simple enough thing that she had done countless times. Now, in the past she had always followed her order up with an email listing what she had ordered, including dimensions. This time she had not, and it had all turned out to be a disaster…

at the end of her email she wrapped it up nicely by saying how the firm had finally relented and offered a full refund…

Basically, the firm had got the measurements wrong and were blaming her. Instead of just admitting that what they had sent out was not correct, they had said that she couldn’t have a refund, and also blamed her for not emailing. But my friend’s point was this: she shouldn’t ever have had to emailed, and did all customers? She doubted that. So really, the fact she hadn’t this time had no bearing on anything. Yet the firm was acting up and pretending like they couldn’t claim any responsibility for it. Which frankly disgusted me.

Not that all banner companies are like this, of course! No, my friend found a great one moments after and intends to use them for all future orders.

The point, though, is this: at the end of her email she wrapped it up nicely by saying how the firm had finally relented and offered a full refund AND extra banner. All because my friend had stuck to her guns and used the right kind of language; not forceful, exactly, but strong and to the point. Assertive. Take heed of this if you’re not the kind of person who likes to complain. Bear in mind that nobody really likes to complain, but sometimes making an example when you want something is the only way to be able to get it!

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I was on a website looking at Stansted transfers, when I saw an awful advert for steak. One thing that amazes me in this world is how people can justify to themselves the way in which they completely disregard the lives of some animals, yet they would practically defend others with their own life! There is a huge disconnect somewhere when someone values the life of a cat above all other things, because it is their own pet, yet they are willing to be part of the murder of hundreds of other animals each year. Why do humans think that they have the right to decide which lives have value and which ones do not?

I think that the real truth of the matter is that people do not realize that this is what they are doing on a daily basis. I did not think about this until a short time ago, but now I believe it is a huge problem on this planet. Some cultures realize the truth of the matter, and do not advocate the killing of any animals for human use, and I applaud this attitude. If we all followed suit, the world would be a much better place all round.

Some people even spend their lives campaigning to save the lives of a few lions and tigers, which I think is a great thing. However, in the same amount of time that they are trying to save maybe 20 lions, they may have been indirectly involved with the killing of hundreds of chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows and other animals for the purpose of eating. Something does not add up there! If they care about the lives of one animal so much, why do they not care about the lives of all animals equally? Who gave them the right to say that a lions life is worth more than a cows, or that a cats life is worth more than a pigs?

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The world is in a right old state. Economies are crumbling, the Euro looks like it’s going to go belly up any day now and jobs are being lost everywhere on a daily basis. In the UK it feels something akin to trying to play tennis with only one hand. You rush for every ball that sails over the net, but it’s becoming harder and harder to return it. Both the army and NHS have had their budgets cut or ‘redistributed’, but be assured that hope remains.

NHS nurse jobs have been become increasingly available over the past year following the coalition’s decision to re-administrate the organisation. Following an election promise that involved ‘ring fencing'the NHS was anyone really that surprised when changes were proposed? Besides, putting trust money directly into the hands of local GPs to spend as they see fit might work. It does cut out the need for a middle man working in an office with budgets all over the desk. The danger lies in the time it will take away from GPs consulting and treating patients.

With finances being under the direct control of local practices, a lot of administration staff in hospitals and trusts is set to be reduced. This was the aim of the changes. Most of the public have been able to stomach this – even if it means a fair few middle managers lose their jobs in the process. What it has also meant is that more and more frontline jobs are set to be created. Doctor jobs, nurses jobs and clinical staff positions are to become more readily available. A quick check of the job listings shows that there are jobs available for newly qualified and experienced medical professionals. Yet questions remain over whether this will last?

Personally I think the reduction in hospital administration is a good thing. I recall the NHS spending millions of pounds on a new computerised filing system for all of the UK a few years ago, only to find that the system was faulty and could not be used properly. All of that money came from the taxpayer and ended up being a complete waste. The number of people employed to do basic admin jobs that could be done quickly by just one person was staggering.

Every hospital should have an administration department to help the trust function effectively, but the amount of people involved does need to be reduced. The old axiom of ‘too many cooks spoil the broth'is very true in the case of the NHS when it comes to administration. Doctors and nurses we can never have too many of, but to maintain filing and records accurately requires more focused attention. Having separate departments to deal with this can and has resulted in disaster over the past ten years. Whether you like it or not, a good portion of the blame does lie with the last government. Yes they built many new hospitals – which we couldn’t afford and are now crippling our finances – and introduced some good legislation. Unfortunately they also increased the administrative work ten fold creating jobs, but overly complicating and confusing an institution we all rely on.

It’s good to see more NHS jobs available for medical professionals. I just hope the momentum holds.

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Little girls are happier is they wear their hair short

My sister and her daughter have daily battles with the hair brush and the shampoo. Lilly hates to have her hair done in the bath or shower. She can’t stand the pain of having the tangles brushed out and she is not patient enough to sit still while her mother plaits it. My sister wants to cut it short, but her husband and mother in law keep saying how nice it looks long. Neither of them ever spend the time brushing it. They object to short hair because they say that people will think that Lilly is a boy.

There are so many ways to make sure that your little one is not mistaken for a boy. You can choose really colourful dress fabrics, hair ribbons and bands, pink shoes, or even go for the classic ear ring trick. In many cultures baby girls have their ears pierced from just a few weeks of age. I personally don’t buy into this, but the one moment of pain, as opposed to the daily fights seems like a reasonable trade off. The obvious solution is to stop caring what people think and just let children be themselves. It is far healthier to play in mixed gender groups doing fun and physical activities. Too many people think that it is biologically determined that girls should have long hair and play with princesses and fairies. I see from my niece, that this is really a media message pushed at them from a really early age and then repeated through positive and negative reinforcement of their peer group. My sister couldn’t take the pressure of the family and neighbours to stand up for fun and dirt. So the year end action group is offering free hair cuts to any little girl who wants one like Hermione. She is the ultimate role model for cool kids. Everybody give a cheer for Emma.

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This is one thing that I want to get rid off before the year ends. The tendency of drivers to behave like maniacs on the road is plain stupid. Sure, people get ticked off by their bosses or get dumped by their partners. Spouse cheat and kids don’t give respect. What is the point of taking it all out on the accelerator? People drive at top speeds and end up crashing into each other. What is more, they get out of the vehicle and try to manually kill each other, something that the vehicle failed to succeed in.

Why? What purpose does this serve? Everybody feels ashamed at the end of the day when they realize that they have behaved like a complete prat in front of others. Sure, we like to tell ourselves that the other person has behaved like a bigger prat. However, there is a voice inside you that says – ’What were you thinking?'

If I had my way, I would use metal tins and keep banging them together until those shouting at the top of their voice on the road would shut up. That, in my opinion, is the best way of tackling this silly phenomenon. Not only does it create aggravation in society, it also makes us safer drivers fear taking the vehicle out on the road for spin.

That is the worst part of the entire deal. The fools end up going home and pretending as if they are happy. The rest of us have to pay for the nonsensical behavior of some drivers on the road.

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As follows:

1) They will last forever. Not good for the animals when they end up in the sea choking them to death, is it?

2) They are wasteful: wouldn’t card or paper be a better material? They also cover just about everything in a supermarket.
3) The process of producing them creates all kinds of toxic fumes and vapours which are absolutely rubbish.
4) We’ve become addicted to them, which means that now, we EXPECT all things to be made out of this material. Yes it’s versatile and yes it’s adaptable but does that mean it’s really the best thing to use? I don’t think so.

So, with all this in mind, I am no longer going to use plastic bags at all. Never. That’s right people, I said NEVER!

Is this a good thing? Well, maybe it’ll inconvenience me a bit, but basically I think it is a good thing. It has to be. Okay, so there’s not much I can do to rid the world of plastic bags on my own, but in time, and using social networking, I aim to completely change the way we live.

Who knows? It’s a crazy idea but it just might work, or so I like to think.

Another good thing about bags getting the boot is that, and here comes a poem, other plastic goods might follow suit. If you ask me that’s pretty bloomin'fanstastic. It means that all kinds of things like banner stands might start changing for the better and companies might make more things out of environmentally sound material. Great!

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I’m just getting back into going to the gym, after a long time of lazing about on my backside doing no exercise and eating lots of cake. It was when I tried to play football with some mates the other week and ended up a wheezing, sweating mess – with all my supposed friends standing around and laughing at me – that I decided something had to be done.
I’m taking it slowly at first. A bit of swimming, bit of time on the exercise bike and the rowing machine. Now that we’re getting some pleasant spring evenings I’ve even been known to strap on the sweat bands and go for a quick jog. But soon I know I will have to go into the gym and make an appointment for the one thing I am really dreading – my personal training appointment.
I’d happily go without, to be honest, and just muddle along doing my own thing, but the gym bosses insist that everyone has an introductory session with a member of staff so that they can familiarise themselves with all the machines and to “get the most” out of the equipment and their gym membership. I’ve been through one of these sessions before, and somehow got myself talked into doing loads of weights and signing up for the torture that is also known as spinning classes. I was only a few minutes away from being offered huge jars of whey protein and some steroids, I reckon!
Can’t gym staff accept that some guys just want to be fit? That we don’t all want to look like Arnie in his prime. I’d love to go to one of those women-only gyms (not for that reason) where they just let you work out at your own pace, rather than all that grunting and free weights that seems to be encouraged among us blokes….

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Many people are fed up with their jobs. The nearly three million unemployed in the UK though might have something to say about that though. So when does it get to the point that your job has become so unbearable that you need to leave. I’ll try to offer some rounded advice as well as my usual rant to prevent you from getting depressed or angry.

First the advice bit: you should never quit your job without having something already lined up to take its place. Whether that be another job, a plan to move abroad or travel or time to start studying for a degree you should always try and have a plan. Notice I used the word ‘try'right after the word ‘always’. Whilst it is sensible to have a back up and an alternative to take over once you’ve given your boss the finger, it is not always essential.

Sometimes you can become so beaten down in your job that you become too afraid to jerk yourself out of it. You feel like you need some kind of Mac Antivirus to reboot your systems and get you back into the swing of life. If you are in that kind of situation then it can become okay to hand in your notice without having a back up plan ready. It is not always easier to look for a job whilst you’re working. In fact trying to find a job whilst you’re working can become wholly depressing as you’re usually knackered and de-motivated. What better motivation is there then the threat of poverty? I’ve seen people quit their hell hole jobs and move into something they’ve always wanted to do in life, just like that (mimes clicking his fingers).

So by all means try and be sensible and have an alternative, but if you really are stuck in a rut and are miserable then do yourself a favour and give yourself whatever kick you need to get back to your life. It’s your only one at the end of the day…

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There must be something about my face or my body language that makes me look suspicious. How else do you explain the fact that I always – and I mean ALWAYS – get pulled aside by the security chaps at airports. Sometimes it’s just for an extra swipe with the plastic thing, but every now and then (including one very scary moment at Tunis airport) when I actually get taken into a whole separate room for a confusing conversation in pidgin English about my intentions. I feel like a guy asking a father for permission to marry his daughter…
Maybe they check all the people who have bought a worldwide roamig sim card before going on vacation. I used to think that this was just a really good way to get a cheap deal on international calls, but having seen The Wire on TV maybe it’s actually the way that drug dealers operate and that’s why I always get pulled over by security.
I know these guys have a job to do, and I really didn’t mind the first few times it happened, but now it’s getting to be a bit of a drag. With all the travelling I do, I can’t imagine how much of my precious time I’ve wasted sitting in airport offices looking at my watch in case I miss my flight! I’ve actually taken to allowing an extra 30 minutes for my flight in anticipation of all the extra hoops I’m going to end up having to jump through. Guess I’ll have to start practising looking sweet and innocent if I want to get through air travel a bit quicker in the future…

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