Stuffed tiger caused commotion

Blog 10
Appeal to trace tiger toy owner after police alert

BBC News UK
22 May 2011 Last updated at 12:22 GMT

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-13491268

Summary
A photographer who had seen a white tiger alarmed the Hampshire police. The police called in specialists from Marwell zoo for assistance. Those specialists are trained to tranquilize escaped wild animals with darts.
The local golf club was evacuated and the cricket was postponed with half an hour. All those action turned out to be unnecessary. The tiger turned out to be a stuffed animal. It fell over when the helicopter flew low. The police still wonders whether this was a hoax or just a lost property.


Opinion
May be this was hoax, but one can see it as a kind of exercise on how to deal with animals who escape from zoo’s or other places where they are held in captivity. I wonder if they evaluate an action like this. It surprises me that the only noticed it was a stuffed animal after it fell over. It makes me wonder if the police had a look themselves. It seems to me if you look with good binoculars you notice the animal is not breathing or looking around. However at least they found out it was a stuffed animal, before the specialist took off with their darts and tranquilizers.

Coffee can make the Difference

Blog 9
The world behind your £3 cup of coffee
BBC news UK
19 May 2011 Last updated at 10:30 GMT
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13440217

 

Summary
Hayley Atwell (actress) earned her Shakespeare course by working in a coffee bar. Years later she is in Nicaragua and surprised by the poverty of this country that has so many natural reserves as coffee plantations.
She visited a few co-operatives, who help coffee producers to get a fair price for their products and services. Haley visited a farm that just became a partner in the co-operative. On this farm they omitted the essentials of life, but there was hope. Another farm was already a long time in the co-operative and had apart from the bare necessities built their own school.
She says: “The next cup I drink will remind me how we are all in some way responsible for the choices we make.”

Opinion
It is a pity we are not always aware of the choices we have drinking coffee or tea. Since several years coffee companies are booming business and not just in Italy. I hope this opportunity will be explored to the maximum to make people aware of the choices they have. Although the coffee plants are far away, we should realize that our choices can make the world for many people either a worth or a better place to live.

St. Pancras Reopens his Doors.

Blog 8

By Nick Trend 11:11AM BST 12 Apr 2011


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/8435902/Londons-best-railway-hotels.html 

Summary

Inspired by the restoration of one of London’s most impressive renaissance buildings, St Pancras, the writer of this article visited other impressive buildings of the same period. St Pancras is famous in London because it is also a station. The rooms of the hotel are looking over the platforms of St Pancras station. The author discovered that many of the buildings, apart from one, are still there. Most of them have been restored and have this specific Victorian character. The exuberance of those building is unique and no modern 5 star hotel can competed with the personality and luxury appearance those old restored buildings have.

Opinion

I spend many days of in London and made several sightseeing trips organized by friends, family and colleagues. Back than I was surprised how often St Pancras station was part of the tour. Many Londoners seemed to be very proud of this architectural monument in their city. Later I often was one of the many commuters who used the Eurostar traveling back and forwards between the continents. Every time I arrived at St Pancras there was this feeling of coming home in one of the best places one could be. When I walk through St Pancras with friends I am always proud to show them this piece of splendid architecture.

Why Samantha Cameron Decided to Reduce the Size of her Job

Blog 7

By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent 6:30AM BST 14 May 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/7721683/Samantha-Camerons-400000-salary-to-shrink-as-she-cuts-back-hours.html 

Summary

Samantha Cameron has a highly paid job as a creative director at Smython’s. The Prime Minister’s wife decided that in future she would only work two days a week. She claims she made the decision of cutting down the workload when she discovered she was due to have another baby. The intention is to spend more time with her children and to balance her job with her ‘new-day-to-day life’. Whether this pronouncement is also made because she and her husband are moving to Downing Street No 10 is not clear. Fact is that if she kept working the same amount of time as she does her income would be almost two and a half times as much as the PM’s income.

Opinion

This article makes me wonder if the amount of money the PM’s wife earns with her job would make the headlines if she had been the PM and her husband (David Cameron) had been paid this well for a job. However I think the salary she gets paid is outrageous. So from that point of view I welcome the article about the salary. It is a pity the discussion is more about the underlying motivation of Samantha Cameron than about the high salaries in general. One can wonder if anyone is worth so much money.

Memorising is Key Factor for Teen Music Prodigy

Blog 6

By Laura Roberts 3:25PM BST 15 May 2011

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8514840/Teen-music-prodigy-can-learn-pieces-in-hours-despite-being-unable-to-read-a-note.html 





Summary

A 19 years old boy taught himself to play classical music without any lessons or even without reading musical notation. Samuel has been playing music since he was a child. He started of with the guitar, but he had never learned to read notes. Samuel himself was intending to go and study law; but his teachers urged him to go and study music so he can explore his talents. His piano teacher believes Samuel has a mild form of autism. Samuel agreed on clinical research to find out if his teacher believes are right. His own opinion about his talent is that he is just very good in memorising.

Opinion

Now and then one comes across a talented person. This boy has been playing music since a very young age and has learned to use his ears playing not his eyes. The technique of piano playing he might have copied from his mother at a younger age. I wonder about the musical interpretation of the pieces he plays. The article does not refer to his interpretation of the music. Since he is copying someone else’s opinion on the piece. I wonder if he would give the piece a different interpretation if he could sign read the piece before playing instead of listening to someone’s interpretation.

 

Couch Potato Lifestyles costs HS Loads of Money

Blog 5

By Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent 9:45AM BST 15 May 2011

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8514091/Junk-food-Britain-costs-the-NHS-more-than-cigarettes-and-alcohol.html

Summary

The new ways of living have an enormous effect on the amount of money that is spend by the NHS. The economic costs of a lifestyle that often leads to obesity is almost twice the amount spent on health problems caused by smoking and alcohol. Since the 70’s the number of adults smoking has halved, while the number of people suffering of obese are quadrupled. Heart diseases, most cancers, diabetes and strokes are related to obesity.

Many Briton’s have a lifestyle of couch potato’s and don’t realize this lifestyle is due to various life threatening diseases.

Opinion

Obese is a problem in many countries. There are probably several reasons for this expanding problem. Science does not have a solution for it yet, because one does not know the cause. There are some social studies on this issue and some believe that the main cause is the attitude of the people. However there are also people who do not suffer of overweight, but do suffer of health problems caused by bad eating habits. It is to easy to blame overweight people for their bad health. I believe it is necessary to make people aware of the positive consequences of good eating habits. This probably has more effect then focussing on the negative effects.

Long Term Effects of Ecstasy

Blog 4

By Martin Beckford, Health Correspondent 8:00AM BST 25 Apr 2011 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8471281/The-health-risks-of-taking-ecstasy.html

Summary
The incidental use of ecstasy can cause damage like overheating. Some say the damage done by this drug is relatively small considering the amount of people using this drug. However there have been over 200 deaths from the use ecstasy over the last 15 years. Only recently it has become clear that regular use over a longer time also can cause mental damage to the consumer. There are examples of depression and brain damage comparable to that experienced in dementia. In spite of those diseases some high profile figures say it is one of the saver drugs to use.

Opinion
Any harm done by drugs is unnecessary. The amount of effort other people have to go through to take care of the damage is enormous. I am not only referring to the economic impairment, but also the emotional suffering. Especially when people get older, settled and may be even start families the emotional affect of depression and brain damage are massive. Depressed parents have an enormous impact on family life and many children suffer just as much or more as the victim himself. Not to speak of such a horrible disease as dementia. Those are the main reason why I think damage caused by drugs should be prevented, may be even by tolerating it if it is a way to reduce the destructive effect of the ecstasy.