Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Random

Continuously nagging
at the back of your mind.
Continuously present,
wherever you go.
Forever following you,
flooding you with guilt.

You try to ignore it,
hide from it,
deny it from existence...

But it always gets back at you
and you end up working on it.
Last minute.

Joy.
Unfinished homework.

Week 3, article #2

Title: Not the royal wedding: how else might you spend the day?
by Alexandra Topping


* * *

Summary of article

There are some people who don't fancy following the royal wedding. But if they aren't going to follow it, what else can they do? The black sheep can ride the London Eye, taking advantage of the crowds being at Westminster, or they can take in a West End show, as it seems there are plenty to go to. There there is Legoland, great for children or Lego fanatics, and Knowsley Safari Park is open to visitors too. Last, but not least, people van take road trips through the English Countryside.

* * *

My opinion

How kind of this person to give information about things you can do in London when you aren't interested in the Royal Wedding! It must have been very one sided to always read articles about the Royal Wedding, its guests and all the other happenings around it. I also think it's refreshing to read about the other side of such an event.

Week 3, article #1

Title: Mum jailed for killing her 3 kids


* * *

Summary of article

Theresa Riggi murdered her three children, having stabbed them to death last August. Today she was jailed for sixteen years. Her boy twins were eight years old and her daughter was age five. The bodies had been found after people went to investigate a gas explosion at their house. Riggi had apparently tried to kill herself afterwards. She had jumped from the balcony and had seemed to have stabbed herself too. The court had heard that Riggi had been in a legal battle with her ex-husband over the children's custody. Lord Bracadale said in the verdict that Riggi had a genuine but abnormal and possessive love for her children.

* * *


My opinion

I find this article horrifying. It is unbelievable that parents who are divorcing could be so possessive of their children that one parent would kill their children to make sure they would not go to the other parent. I believe that the woman's sentence might have been a bit too little. I would giver her way more years to rot in prison! Furthermore I feel for the father and the rest of the family, it must have been horrible to lose the children this way.

Monday, 18 April 2011

INSTALLING SPRING

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The season you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable

Week 2, article #2

Title: No. 10 tries to buy off doctors of NHS forms
by Nigel Morris, Deputy Political Editor


* * *

Summary of article

David Cameron said that the National Health Service’s overhaul will be delayed, because doctors and nurses resist the plans. He went on saying that there would be prober and substantive changes to the planned reforms. Also, the hospital doctors and GPs would be involved with making these reforms. Meanwhile the Government has paused the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill to listen to people’s worries. Mr. Cameron also said that the plans wouldn’t change, despite all the objections. He will take it easy making them though, telling the Sky news: “It’s much more important to get this right than to stick to your original timetable in every way.” Furthermore he insists it’s not a PR stunt.

* * *

My opinion

The article is a bit vague and it's repetitive. It made it difficult to read. But what I get from this is that the NHS is going to be changed. Change is supposed to be made for the good cause, but it's unclear whether this will be a good change. Further reading (of other articles) is needed for this. I can't give a real opinion on this, because it's unclear in what way the NHS will be reformed.

Week 2, article #1

Title: Assembly for Tomintoul gun death pair Sophie and Calum


* * *

Summary of article

During an accident, trainee gamekeeper Calum Murray accidentally shot Sophie Taylor. Afterwards he shot himself. This week a special school assembly is being held for the two teenagers, to give classmates of Sophie a chance to come together and reflect. The teenagers will also be offered counseling, they can do this one-to-one or in groups. Furthermore, the police don’t think there is anyone else involved with the tragedy.


* * *

My opinion

I think it's wonderful that the students are given the opportunity to reflect on the tragedy together and that they can close this chapter together. The situation of the tragedy is a bit strange to me, why would you kill yourself after accidentally killing someone else? I wonder why the police is not going to investigate any further.

Monday, 11 April 2011

Week 1, article #2

Title: Cameron drums up support for royal wedding street parties as figures show north-south divide
By Gordon Rayner and Nigel Bunyan

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/8443660/Cameron-drums-up-support-for-royal-wedding-street-parties-as-figures-show-north-south-divide..html

* * *

Summary of article

When Lady Diana Spencer was going to marry the Prince of Wales in 1981 there had been tens of thousands applications for street parties. The people wanted to celebrate the wedding. However, now there are only 4000 applications for street parties for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Prime Minister Cameron wants to increas the amount of parties.

Mr. Cameron says that there aren’t any rules to having a street party and that everyone can celebrate if they want to. By saying this he wants to promote the street parties in Britain.

* * *

My opinion

I think it's wonderful that there are people who want to celebrate the wedding of the Prince. Of course not everyone wants to do this with a street party. Even though there haven't been a terrible lot of applications for street parties, this doesn't mean no one is celebrating! When we look at our society today, I think these parties might not be a part of it anymore. Not as big a part as it was in 1981 when the Prince of Wales married. This would explain the big difference between tens of thousands street parties in 1981 and the 4000 in 2011.

Oops

I keep forgetting to verify my comments and it's very annoying to have to type them all over again.. Hope you guys do a better job than me lol.

Week 1, article #1

Title: Government's doomed £6bn plan to dispose of nuclear waste
By Steve Connor, Science Editor

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/governments-doomed-6bn-plan-to-dispose-of-nuclear-waste-2266047.html

* * *

Summary of article

The UK Government had made a plan to tackle England’s plutonium waste (located in Sellafield, Cumbria). “It was meant to be reprocessed and sold” but after the Japanese tsunami the international trade of reprocessed nuclear fuel has been frozen. Japan has put the trade with England on hold because of the problems at Fukushima; however, the shipment was meant for Hamaoka.

“Other Japanese power companies have indicated that – they will not be taking any reprocessed fuel from Britain” for ten years. This is an expensive setback for England. It’s too expensive to store the plutonium and another plant for reprocessing will probably be built.

* * *

My opinion

What I understand from this article is that Japan refuses all international trade because of one power plant failing, while all the others are still working perfectly. England processes plutonium waste into nuclear energy but because the trade between Japan has been frozen they cannot do anything with the nuclear energy. Alas, it's very expensive to store plutonium. I think Japan is being a bit too nervous about the nuclear energy and that because one power plant failed, that doesn't mean they need to shut off the other plants from trade too.

Hello everyone!

This is my first post on this blog. I already have another one but I totally forgot how this works... I think it might be wise to start learning how to do this, again. :D