Category: news

Joe Cotton said politicians had their ‘heads in the clouds’

A 15-year-old boy was given a standing ovation at a teachers’ conference after his speech on the axing of the education maintenance allowance (EMA).

Joe Cotton urged the National Union of Teachers to do all they could to keep education “affordable and accessible”.

The GCSE student, from Calder High School, Yorkshire, said scrapping the EMA did not make economic sense.

The government is replacing the scheme to keep poorer pupils in education with what it says is a more targeted grant.

But the weekly allowance of up to £30 was closed to new applicants in a cost-saving government measure.

Joe, from Hebden Bridge, told the 1,100-strong NUT conference in Harrogate: “Like many other people, recent events have made me really aware of the effects that political decisions can have on my life.

“At the moment, education as we know it is under threat.

“Despite pledges and promises, tuition fees are trebling and vital schemes like SureStart and the educational maintenance allowance are being axed.

“Today, I’d like to stress how important it is that the EMA at least is protected.”

He added: “In the words of Nadine, one of the 650,000 college students who currently receive it; ‘EMA means I can go to college. Without it I just couldn’t manage’.”

He claimed that the EMA replacement announced last month was receiving £400m less funding and added: “Well I don’t know how nifty Michael Gove thinks he can be with a loaf and some fishes, or even a bus pass and some text books, but he’s going to need nothing short of a miracle to replicate the benefits of the EMA with that budget.”

To applause from the floor, the teenager added: “I believe that if even one student is unable to continue education based on their family’s income and not their ability, then the government has failed in its responsibility to uphold basic rights to education.”

After he finished speaking, NUT general secretary Christine Blower took to the stage to congratulate him saying: “Now that’s what comprehensive education can do.”

And he was given a standing ovation by the delegates.

School pupils have protested against the scrapping of the EMA

Speaking to reporters after the speech, Joe said he was invited by a member of the NUT executive to speak at the conference after he spoke at a rally in Halifax.

He admitted he enjoyed the attention of public speaking and that he wanted to be a teacher, but had also considered a career in politics.

Joe predicted that many young people would be politicised by the cuts and changes to the education system.

He said politicians had their “heads in the clouds” if they thought scrapping the EMA and trebling university fees would not deter young people from staying on in education.

His mother Sarah Cotton said she was proud her son had made the effort to get himself fully informed about the issues.

Under the government’s new £180m scheme some 12,000 teenagers with the greatest need will receive up to £1,200 per year. These include pupils in care, care leavers and the severely disabled.

After these payments, there will be £165m for colleges and schools to make discretionary payments to support low-income students with costs such as transport, food and books.

A Department for Education spokeswoman said: “We are providing targeted financial support for the most vulnerable 16-19 year-olds.

“£180m will be available for a new bursary fund – enough to ensure that every child eligible for free school meals who chooses to stay on could be paid £800 per year.

“This is more than many receive under the current EMA arrangements.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The eruption shut down European airspace in April 2010

Concerns about aircraft safety during the eruption of an Icelandic volcano in 2010 were well founded, according to a new scientific study.

Ash particles from the early phase of the eruption were small and abundant, posing a potential threat to aircraft flying through the cloud.

Such particles could have melted inside jet engines, potentially causing them to fail mid-flight.

The work by an Icelandic-Danish team is published in PNAS journal.

The analysis also reveals that ash particles from early in the eruption were particularly sharp and abrasive.

The outpour of ash from Eyjafjallajokull caused the largest closure of European airspace since World War II, with losses estimated at between 1.5bn and 2.5bn euros.

Some 10 million travellers were affected by the shutdown.

The latest research was carried out by researchers at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and the University of Iceland in Reykjavik.

Senior author Susan Stipp, from Copenhagen University, told BBC News: “I think the really important parts of it are: Number one, the aviation authorities were absolutely right in closing airspace.

“Number two, we have presented a protocol so that, if answers are needed quickly in future, they can be had.

“Then the data that are produced can be put into models to determine how far, how high and how wide the ash will spread that will be based more on fact than on guesswork.”

The researchers analysed the sizes and structures of ash particles using a variety of techniques, such as atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction.

Ash samples from the early phase of the eruption (L) contained large quantities of fine dust compared with ash from later in the eruption (R)

They compared ash that was ejected in the early, explosive phase of the eruption with ash from a later, more typical eruption of the volcano.

The ash ejected in the early phase was light and powdery. The more typical ash thrown out in the later stages was more granular, with the consistency of dry sand.

“The ash that was ejected in the first few days was so fine-grained because it was produced by an explosive eruption,” Dr Stipp told BBC News.

“The meltwater from the glacier on top of the volcano ran down into the crater, chilling the magma and then the pressure from underneath caused an explosion. So the particles of ash were very fine-grained and very sharp compared to normal ash.

“The smaller the particles, the slower they come back down again. Normal ash is usually settled as it moves away from the volcano. But because the particles were so small, they travelled a longer distance from the volcano and remained in the area where the airplanes fly for a much longer time.”

Modern aircraft engines operate at temperatures of around 2,000C. Dr Stipp says the glassy particles in the ash cloud start to soften at about 800C.

“By 1,000C, they are melted. And because they are so small, they melt faster. It’s like when you have a drink with one big ice cube. The ice cube will stay around, but when you crush it, it melts quickly,” she explained.

Jem Stansfield demonstrates how volcanic ash can damage a jet engine

Stewart John, an expert on aircraft safety and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, told BBC News: “There’s no way they could have allowed those aircraft to keep flying when it first happened. That was absolutely the right, safe decision, because no one knew any better.

But he added: “The amount of time it took to get going again is debatable.”

In 1982, a British Airways 747 flew through an ash cloud during the eruption of Mount Galunggung in Indonesia. The ash sandblasted all the surfaces of the aircraft and caused all four jet engines to cut out when the melted ash coated their interior.

Luckily for the 263 passengers and crew, the pilot was able to re-start three of the engines after they cooled during descent. He was able to land by peeking through a 2-inch strip on the side window that had avoided sandblasting.

“I saw those engines when they were stripped down and it was quite frightening,” said Mr John.

“There is no way you can fly through it if it’s thick and dense. On the other hand, even when you try to avoid it, it’s there in the atmosphere and it causes progressive damage [to the aircraft].

“But you can live with that because you can monitor it.”

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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Brief Encounter earned Johnson a best actress Oscar nomination

Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2, known to many as the Brief Encounter theme, has been voted the nation’s favourite piece of classical music.

The work, featured throughout the 1945 film about lost love starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, came top in the poll of Classic FM listeners.

Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending came second in the annual poll, after coming top in the previous four years.

Mozart was the most popular composer with 20 entries in the list of 300.

His highest entry was number five for his Clarinet Concerto.

British composer Vaughan Williams also took third place with his Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.

Beethoven occupied three places in the top 10 – at number four with his Piano Concerto No 5, number six with his Symphony No 6 and number 10 with his Symphony No 9.

More than 180,000 people voted in the poll which the station said proved “music written hundreds of years ago is very much alive today”.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Yahoo is looking to expand into the mobile internet market

Yahoo has announced a deal to buy TV-sharing start-up company IntoNow as part of its plans to increase its social media presence.

The financial terms of the deal, including price, were not disclosed.

IntoNow’s software allows users to identify TV shows and share them with friends using mobile internet.

Amid falling revenue and profits, Yahoo is looking to expand into the mobile internet market, and to increase video advertising on the site.

“Relying on social channels as a means for discovering content – whether it’s on a PC, mobile device, or TV – is rapidly on the rise,” said Bill Shaughnessy at Yahoo.

“IntoNow’s technology combines the ability to check-in to what a consumer is watching, engage in conversations, and find related content.”

The application is integrated with Facebook, Twitter, iTunes and Netflix.

Launched in January this year, California-based IntoNow is led by Adam Cahan, a former executive at Google and Viacom’s MTV.

Last week, Yahoo reported profits of $223m (£137m) for the first three months of 2011, down from $310m last year.

However, the figure was better than analysts had expected.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

By Roger Harrabin

Emissions data from major exporters like China can be unclear

The extent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions “hidden” in imported goods is growing, according to two studies.

Official statistics do not include emissions created by making imported goods but researchers say they should.

It comes as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports 26% of global emissions come from producing goods for trade.

The Carbon Trust found such “embedded” CO2 could negate domestic carbon cuts planned in the UK up to 2025.

Researchers want all nations to publish their data on embedded emissions.

Glen Peters of research group Cicero, lead authors of the PNAS report, told BBC News: “There is a degree of delusion about emissions cuts in developed nations. They are not really cuts at all if countries are simply buying in products they used to manufacture.

“We really need all countries to be developing and publishing the full extent of their emissions, whether they are produced domestically or outsourced through traded goods.”

The issue of embedded (or outsourced) carbon emissions has been recognised for several years, and the methodology to track emissions pathways is developing.

Cicero produced a trade-linked global database for CO2 emissions covering 113 countries and 57 economic sectors from 1990 to 2008.

It found that emissions from producing exported goods increased from 4.3Gt (gigatonnes) of CO2 in 1990 (20% of global emissions) to 7.8Gt of CO2 in 2008 (26%).

Most developed countries increased their consumption-based emissions faster than their territorial emissions – particularly from goods such cars and clothes.

The Carbon Trust research, posted on its website as draft findings not for circulation, confirms that the UK has increased emissions since 1990 rather than decreasing them, as politicians typically claim.

What may alarm ministers even more is a projection that the radical CO2 cuts planned by government into the 2020s may be offset by ever-increasing levels of CO2 in imports.

Dr Peters said: “Publishing this sort of data is the first step. The next step – what to do about it – is more difficult.

“It raises questions about consumption patterns, and whether countries should consider border taxes on imports from countries with no controls on CO2 emissions… though this is controversial and will be some way down the line.”

A UK think tank, the Public Interest Research Centre (Pirc), has been discovering how uncomfortable this issue is proving for rich nations.

A succession of Freedom of Information requests reveals a degree of frustration among some British civil servants that the UK insists on basing its emissions calculations solely on domestic emissions.

One piece of government correspondence reveals: “While technological efficiency has improved the CO2 impacts of our products since 1992, the rise in UK consumption has outstripped the improvements achieved.

“The government needs to be cautious about over-claiming on its achievements in decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation.”

Ministers are well aware of the issue, but insist that the UK should stick to reporting domestic emissions, as these form the basis for international climate negotiations.

They also point out that emissions data from major exporters like China is notoriously opaque, and that the methodology for calculating outsourced emissions is unreliable. They say all this creates even greater pressure for the UK to persuade China to cut its own emissions.

Guy Shrubsole, from Pirc, told BBC News: “This is a cop-out. The figures aren’t perfect but the problem has been recognised for several years and the calculations are getting better all the time. In the UK our emissions are up – not down.

“Of course China needs to be part of a global climate agreement. But for a government which wants to be the greenest ever and is committed to data transparency it’s essential that the British government publishes the best data available right away – and then figures out what to do about it.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Boxer Ricky Hatton removes bogus pages on Facebook where he has been depicted as making taunts about the Manchester United Munich air crash.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.