Ugarit Roadmap (by alaric)

I've not had much time to hack on Ugarit lately, which is a shame - but just to keep you enthusiastic, here's my current roadmap.

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Digital Disaster Looming (by sarah)

Last week saw Digital Economy Bill passed, meaning it will become law. This particular bill is badly written and could have far-reaching consequencies for everyone. My first issue with this was that they were trying to whip it through parliament without proper discussion; the MPs don't understand the potential issues that could result from this.

One such issue is the possibility of having your internet access cut off to your house if copyright infringment is suspected. This means that houses with teenagers in would be in danger of suddenly loosing their internet and if Mum or Dad works from home it could cripple the household. Plus the fact that this cutting off can happen just on suspicion means an environment of vigilante rule and sabotage. You're cut off and then have to prove you're not guilty - this is contradictory to how our legal system is supposed to work, isn't it?

Saying the parents should have control over the teenagers is stupid to anyone who remembers being a teenager and, worse, some teenagers happen to be past the age of majority and therefore legal entities in their own right but are likely to still be living at home.

Or... student halls or shared accommodation. What happens when one student gets the internet cut off from an entire Halls with like 150 students desperatly trying to do their course work and trying to access the library archives? This would be done via the internet, funnily enough. The same would go for kids doing GCSEs and A levels - so it suddenly becomes ok to cut of a house, rendering those kids at a social disadvantage during their exams, which could lead to either/or more stress or lower grades - thinking about this you could kill the kids' prospects before they've even began. There are charities out there trying to get internet access into disadvantaged households for this very reason and the Government want to give big business the right to take it away on a suspicion?

Have I missed something here?

And when they say copyright infringement, they mean all the minor stuff that most people didn't even know was infringement (put it this way even the Politicians themselves have managed to infringe copyright during their campaigns without realising it!).

This is just one part of this bill - there are many more which, if taken as written, would be equally as scary if not more so. This will affect companies that rely on the web (which is an awful lot these days especially the small/medium business). Can you imagine being a shop whose main source of revenue is through your web orders and suddenly wham, bam, your premises are cut off? This would be enough to cripple you plus there are other things being mooted such as blocking of actual websites - oh how the commercial competitors could sabatage you with that one - think about it.

The thing is, this isn't over yet - and as I said before whilst I have a voice and its safe to use it I will. For more information on what can be done know look here.

Debill – A Protest Poem (by sarah)

Debasing
Electronic economy
Being blinded by
Illogical idosyncrasies
Leading literate
Lynchings

April’s Challenges :) (by sarah)

This month is mainly going to be dedicated to Script Frenzy which I am really looking forward too! I am working on a comic book of The Punk (the main protagonist from my NaNoWriMo story). I'll be covering the progress of this on Purple Monster as it is all part and parcel of the same thing 🙂

I am also going to be doing another month of Poem a Day - this is NaPoWriMo 🙂 and as I was told last night of somewhere looking for specific science poems I think I shall be rolling on that one soon 🙂 The poems will be going up on Turquoise Monster as always 🙂

Caroline Herschel (by sarah)

Caroline is the sister of the more famous astronomer Sir Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel but though he is known and well respected she is often seen as just his assistant.

Born 16 March 1750 to what really amounts to a rather abusive family in Germany she owed a lot to her brother for rescuing her at risk of his own freedom. He bought her to England where he had already started to establish himself as an astronomer. The siblings were basically self made financially and work hard.

Though she started off just assisting him she ended up carrying out the brunt of the work rising before her brother to write things up and generally going to bed after him.

She also made a great many discoveries on her own and even after her brothers death worked hard to varify his discoveries something that is often seen as dull but is if anything more valuable to the world at large. She produced a catalogue of nebulae which she recieved a Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society in 1828. This helped her nephew John Herschel in his work - she took on the role of raising John and was the honoured guest at his graduation dispite an initial falling out with her sister-in-law.

Caroline and Mary Somerville were also elected as the first honorary women members of the Royal Astronomical Society In 1835. She obtain many other rewards and has craters and asterial bodies named after her - she was still going at 96 with the astronomy!

During work with her brother they both sustained physical hardship and injuries such as frost bite and in Carolines case being impaled on a peg holding down the telescope 🙁

She was a brave woman who had to over come alot on a personal front, her brothers hogging of the lime light is more an artifact of the age they lived in than a reflection on them. But even in such an age she won awards that would not be awarded to a women again in well over a hundred years.

And though she did not have any children she none the less raised a child and continued in her scientific endervours without neglect of his needs.

This is why I have chosen Caroline for this years Ada Lovelace Day - whilst I was in the meteoritics department I came across articles about her and it inspired me to keep going 🙂