Graduates unemployed

This years graduates face the biggest challenge in years when finishing their course. As the economical regression rages on thousands face unemployment because of job cuts. The government is planning to support these academics with courses and internships to prevent them being unemployed. This way graduates will work for reduced wages to show the employers what they can do.

To make the situation worse, this year more students will graduate that usual because this is the generation of children of the babyboomers, 25 years ago. This while the job market is drying up in the crisis we are living through. It's vital for a graduate to start working as soon as possible to build up a healthy career, but businesses narrow down their search to 5 elite universities for harvesting employees, which makes it harder for graduates from other universities.

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It's a really bad time to finish your studies at the time but you can't possible prospone it for that reason. The economic crisis is just something we have to live through but being unemployed as a freshly graduated academic can harm your career immensely. Therefor I think it's a good thing the government jumps in and supports them, by making sure they work. Fortunatly, my graduation will take another couple of years so I don't have to worry at the time.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/10/graduate-employment-crisis-rescue-package

Just in time

A woman who does not want to be named turned her husband-to-be in just 5 days before they would have married, because she found out he is a paedophile.

The man who admitted a total of 19 charges like indecent assault, indecent photographing and distributing child pornography had confessed to his fiancee that he had taken an indecent photograph of a child and indecently touching her. Upon hearing this, the woman called the police and called off the wedding. Upon his arrest the man admitted to have taken the photo and distributing it.

The man, an aircraft technician, got interested in child pornography in 2000 and shared his collection eversince. He says to feel "reel remorse". The womans comment: "I had a lucky escape"

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The man is banned to work with children for the rest of his life and is put in the sex offenders register. I think that's a good thing, because paedophilia is something that really discusts me. It's true that sometimes people can't help having these feelings, they are born with it and it like a disease and mainly very unpleasant for the person concerning. Keeping these feelings under control however ís something you can do when you have them. People who can't handle these feelings and thus themselves are weaklings in my opinion.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bride-reports-paedophile-fiance-before-wedding-1264461.html

Crew Sirius Star is safe

This story is continues where a couple of entries down one stopped. It has been two months since the Sirius Star, an oil tanker carrying 2 million barrels of oil, was hijacked. 3 million dollars was paid to let the ship with its crew go. Apparently a plane dropped the money by parachute on the boat.

The 25-strong crew, including 2 Britons, is in good physical and mental condition, to the owners' relief. They will be on their way home soon to reunite with their families. The current location of the tanker is unknown. Five pirates have reportedly drowned due to hitting high-seas while making a run for it with their part of the ransom.

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A happy ending for the crew, their owners and international sea travel. I still do not agree the payment of ransom to these criminals, for it only encourages them to hijack more boats. I am glad the crew got home safe though and can imagine the owner paying the ransom with the lives and goods at stake.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7821783.stm

Cancerfree baby

The first British baby that was scanned before the conception is born in a London clinic. Mother and daughter are doing very well.

The baby is free of the BRCA1 gene, which gives a carrier 50-85% chance to get breast cancer sooner or later in her life. In the past, doctors already managed to scan embryos on other inherited disorders like cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease but the fact that they scanned for the BRCA1 gene is a medical breakthrough. The screening tests were conducted on 11 embryos, of which 2 were found negative on the BRCA1 gene and these were planted, resulting in a single pregnancy.

Although it's very pleasant for the baby girl and for the parents who are now sure they didn't transmit the disorder onto their baby, the question rises whether this is ethically permittable. To some this may seem that one step closer to building the perfect baby.

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I think it's a beautiful ending for what must have been a stressed out period for the parents. The ethical question however is one I can relate to very well, because I haven't decided yet whether I find these kinds of operations ethical. Sure it is convinient for the parents and the baby but what is next? For all I know you'll be able to choose the colour of your baby's eyes and the size of their feet, modeling your child even before it is 'made'. It brings a lot of advantages but I still believe letting nature do its thing. As I said before, I haven't decided...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jan/10/pgd-baby-debate-breast-cancer

Gaza Protest March

Today, a major protest walk started in the speakers corner of Hyde Park in London. The topic of conversation was the Israeli military offensive in Gaza. The main reason for the march was the bombing of a school which costed several children and parents their lives in Gaza.

As said, people gathered in Hyde Park on one of the coldest days of the year to listen to speakers including trade unionists and representatives of Palistinian exiles. More than 100.000 people attended the march in Hyde Park and also in the Kensington Gardens, which is near the Israeli embassy. The march started in Hyde Park along Lancaster Gate to join the demonstrators at Kensington Gardens. The organisation, the stop the war coalition, expected these numbers of visitors and the whole demonstration was performed quietly without much violence.

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I'm always a bit sceptical about demonstrations. Sure it is a good thing to show that you care and let the world know what you stand for. People have achieved great things with strikes and marches of all sorts. A march condemning a war thousands of miles away however, doesn't really make much sense to me. I think it's a relief for a lot of people to spill their ideas in this manner, but it wouldn't be my thing. Fortunatly the march was peaceful because it would be awfull to see a riot of 100.000 people in central London.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/10/gaza-protest-march-london-hyde-park

Bus breaks into house

In Ilminster, Somerset (south-west England) a school bus smashed into a house while driving the kids inside the bus to school on a regular friday. The coach embedded itself into a front corner of the house, leaving the house on the brink of collapse. The bus carried 25 children between 13 and 18 to their school in Crewkerne. Fortunatly, everyone including the driver got out almost unharmed, except for one child with a cut lip. The occupants of the house were at home at the time but also got away unhurt.
The main problem at the moment is the fear that the house will collapse, since the bus really embedded itself in the house moving the walls about half an inch. At the moment, the fire brigade accompanied by a building inspector are working out how to get the bus out. A structural engineer was also called to assess the situation. The residents are currently hosted in a local hotel. The house probably won't be livable for a while.

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Although it's a really awful situation for the residents of the house, I think it's a positive article because everyone got away pretty much unharmed. I think it's kind of funny actually, when visualizing the situation of a bus with it's front end in a house and lots of people around it figuring out how to get the damn thing out without the house falling on top of their heads. I figure it definitly shakes up the neighbourhood. Funny article!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/school-bus-smashes-into-house-1264456.html

From March, the UK government has instated a law that commits all internet providers to keep information about every single email send by their customers. Several human rights groups have already declared they disagree with this law. The worry is what will be next in controlling our lives.
The data that will be harvested are the details on the email sent, which does not include the content. The government insists this data is vital for crime and terror inquiries.
The human rights organisation 'Liberty' does not trust any government or organisation with so much sensitive information.
This law was already passed for telephone conversations some years ago. The telephone companies already had all this data for billing reasons but nowadays the governments gets to look at them as well. With the mailing data combined this could mean anyone could be traced 24 hrs a day, so says The Earl of Northesk
Apart from the conflict with the human rights, this will mean a great deal of money must be spend to set up the system and keeping it running. Money that could be spend on more usefull reasons according to the several organisations.

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I really agree with the statement that the human rights organistations made. If we let the governments go through with this, where will it end? Piece by piece a system is build which will be able to track us down to the meter for 24 hrs a day. Once such systems will be activated it's hard to go back and with that said we lose our privacy once chunk at a time. It's rediculous that these measures are taken without real and direct approval of the civilians, because it involves every one of them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7819230.stm