Crowd Sourced Creative Ventures (by sarah)

I love writing challenges and things like #FridayFlash and #StoryStarters on Twitter where there is an open community helping each other and giving writing prompts. So imagine my excitement when Neil Gaiman appeared on Twitter wanting prompts and inspiration for a set of stories!

He tweeted a question for each month with the hash tags #JanTales, FebTales and so on. I tried to stay up (he's in the US so time difference) to get all the months but only made it to July though the next morning I retraced and answered the remaining questions just for my own piece of mind.

I doubt any of my mine will be selected but that doesn't matter because if they are not then I have some prompts for my own writing.

The idea is sponsored by [BlackBerry who have been collecting all the tweets on a hub. And there will be charity calendar produced with crowd sourced art works as well (and yes I am hoping to do some pics for that to enter!).

This is a lovely idea as it draws in people and becomes something more than a story collection - it is in truth already a community - I have picked up one follower who was having issues with his writing prompt generator and I have suggested improvements to it and so on...

Anyway here are the questions and my answers:

Why is January so dangerous?

January is a time of change, the door way between one year and the next, a dangerous edge time #jantales

What is the strangest this to happen to you in February?

The strangest thing that has happened to me in Feb is I passed out in an art gallery & came round staring at a picture #febtale

What historical figure does March remind you of?

Queen Elizabeth the first as it was the first time I heard the legend of the Bisley Boy #Martale

What is your happiest memory of April

my little brother being born after so much waiting - that is the happiest April memory #AprTale

What is the weirdest gift you've ever been given in May?

A shovel over breakfast of a baby stoat in 3 pieces by an eccentric ancient aunt who thought we'd find it interesting. #MayTale

Where would you spend a perfect June?

The perfect June is spent with my family running workshops at festivals #Juntale not very interesting

What is the most unusual thing you have ever seen in July?

segway shopping basket grannies fighting and asking for gin - it was of course the stilt walkers latest get up #JulTale

If August could speak, what would it say?

My gown is covered in berries help me clean them up in time for a new golden gown of leaves #AugTale

Tell me something you lost in September that meant a lot to you.

A friend washed away in a flash flood whilst he was collecting soil samples in a small town near my home #SeptTale

What mythical creature would you like to meet in October? (&why?)

The Bunyip because when I was 4 my Australian aunts told me about it and I've always liked the stories #OctTale

What would you burn in November, if you could?

Hatred #NovTale

Who would you like to see again in December?

Too many people who I can't

A Real Valentines Day (by sarah)

It is another valentines day and again me and Alaric have failed to do the traditional type of thing.

This time we built shelves for the kitchen (well got half way through building them with the help of my Dad).

We had take away pizza deal with wedges and stuff for 6 of us and I started reading the girls the complete works of Will S. on Jean's request.

We went through some songs that ment things to us and went to bed - mostly Nick Cave and Tori Amos.

We are happy with this - I don't think either of us was cut out for the standard hyped mush that happens with V-Day. As Alaric said it has become something repulsive with all the commercial stuff. The idea of having to buy expensive gifts to show your love :/

This doesn't mean we don't celebrate but it's more making cardboard hearts with the girls and covering stuff with glitter. Last year I knitted a phone cover for Al - that sort of thing.

This year I wrote him a poem.

Food Safety (by sarah)

As the horse meat issue rears it's head once more, we are faced with a bigger problem than most people realise. As I said before when this first came out - food needs to be what it says it is as if it doesn't it can kill or make people sick through food allergies and the like.

The issue is not that it is horse meat but that it is an unknown in there and the horse meat has turned out to have drugs in it that are not safe for humans. This is an issue on two levels - first off it means they are not food animals, have not been raised for it and have been medicated with things that would not be given to livestock. Such meat should not enter the food chain - wasteful perhaps in some eyes. And secondly where on earth have they been getting the animals from did they just fall from earth from space??!

People are saying that this is a reason to buy from your local butcher which is great except a lot of people can't afford to do this - this is the point; it is the cheap foods that are being hit. Families that are struggling anyway are now being hit with the fact that the cheap food they can afford is not what it says it is and good be harmful to their families.

Also from an economic point of view it gets worse - people understandably will stop buying the products affected or a lot of people will. It has hurt the brand name which is good in same ways as it might well drive business back to the local farmers and butchers but... it could have a knock on effect resulting in all meat producers being hit.

Hopefully there will be an upsurgence in ethical farming practice and better food standards but how long has this been going on?

The people who investigate the food - Trading Standards have steadily had their funding cut so that they can't police everything the way they used to. And beef is not the only thing that is iffy.

I'm seeing lots of veggies going 'hahaha see you should all be veggi' - but how many of them really know what they are eating?

There have been instances of meat turning up in veggi processed food, as Alaric said - who's to say that your veggie mince doesn't have horse meat in it - has anyone checked?

But worse there is an entire swathe of counterfeit foods in this country ranging from cheese analogue (not cheese at all it just looks like cheese and though you may think this sounds good and vegan it is harmful).

And it is not just the cheaper foods that are affected, things like Extra Virgin Olive Oil are often fakes as well - not good if you are trying to control what fats and oils you are eating.

Ok so as I myself have said the only way to be sure of what you are eating is to make it yourself from scratch but more than that you have to grow the products on a patch of land that isn't itself contaminated by something. This is not realistic for most people - I wish it was, but modern life does not allow this.

My personal suggestion is give away free veg and put a tax on processed food. It is stupid that processed food cost less than fresh. Add in a policy to try and get as many people as possible growing rather than building on the allotments. Make more of them - people want them - there are huge waiting lists!

And yes I realise this would have an economic knock-on but then so does horse meat in the beef burgers.

Free cooking lessons at community centres and the such like would be good too so that people are not afraid of ruining the food they have just bought.

Also importing less food would be good for our economy, due to not having to convert our money to buy and transport costs and so on. It would be good for the environment too.

Mary Leaky’s 100th Birthday (by sarah)

Today is Mary Leaky's 100th Birthday - later today I shall bake a cake like I did for Alan Turin and draw a picture.

For now here is a google doodle!

Mary Leaky's works are extremely important to us as a species and to me as an individual. To us as a species knowing where we came from helps us in so many ways including why we get sick etc... What happened in the evolution of hominids in general can tell us so much.

For me as an individual she was important as it was her writings that helped inspire me through my A'levels and onto a degree in geolog. Even in my final year I wasn't sure weather I wanted to work in her field or the origin of life.

During my GCSE's and A'levels I read all the books in our local library system to do with the Leaky's and paleo and geology things. It became a bit of an obsession - enough that my in-laws who live in South Africa send me books on the Leaky's.

The Danger of Quotas (by sarah)

Recently a Ruby on Rails conference was destroyed and never took place because feminists complained there were no women on the panels and talks etc... when it was pointed out that no women applied the response was that they had not tried hard enough to find women. This attack grew until the sponsors pulled their money.

This is a shame and horrible, a lot of work had gone into the event and I'm sorry but it is not the organisers fault no women applied. They should not be forced to look for women for fear of events not going ahead. Now what should have happened is that the event went a head and effort was then put in to encourage female programmers to apply to the next one.

Even if women had applied but were not as good as other candidates, there should not be an obligation to take them on just to fill the quota.

Now obviously there is the issue that some people for some reason still seem to think women are not as capable with things such as science and maths and programming but really forcing them to put women on panels is not going to help. The quota thing is being banded about in the science world but to me this can be nothing but damaging to the image of females in science and tech.

The reason is that it devalues what they do - ok so they are there because they are actually really good at what they do - but no one is going to be thinking that - they will be thinking oh she's the token woman isn't she? I wonder if she actually knows her stuff.

Now I had issues with this during my degree. I found out about the area I really wanted to study due to an outreach programme for getting women into the sciences and this was good. In conversations I've had since with various people in charge of universities they agree that the intake of girls on the courses suddenly increased to around 50% and that this was streadily trickling upwards through the science hierachies. There was some winnowing away with the issue of women hitting the glass ceiling with finding themselves at home with kids if they went for families in their 20's, they would often then find themselves also look after sick relatives or some such making a return harder but this was being metered out by older women joining the ranks once family were off hand.

This was great and I never experienced any problems with sexism from staff or established scientists (though disability was another thing and I believe a friend who found herself pregnant had one person say she wasn't coming back so why make a fuss - she got her degree and that staff member was horrible in many other ways). I agree that evidence of women succeeding is needed but it does not need to be rammed down peoples throats. The issue is that we are heading towards equality right?

Not female supremacy.

My main beef with quotas is that though I did not receive any sexism from the lecturers or those I worked with during my work experience I did from fellow students. And the main thing they bullied me over (and yes I mean that in all it's nastiness) is that I ticked three boxes, I filled three quotas with just one person so of course I got in. I was a disabled, poor, female, the only way I could have been better for the books is by being a minority preferable not the creamy pale white I am.

And the thing is there is no come back to this - how did I know that wasn't why I was on the course?

I already knew that I'd been offered a lower grade boundary to get in than others had - a correction made as those in 'normal' schools tend to score lower grades than those in schools you pay for but tend to actually work their buts off if they manage to get in. As it turned out I got the grades needed to get in without the concession which was a great help with the confidence when arguing my right to be there.

The most important thing for succeeding is self confidence but how can you have this if you yourself are worried that you are only there because of some damn quota. A female lecturer told me this was why women had to be better than men to get to the higher jobs in the modern science world, no longer is it to get noticed but more to keep the wolves away once you are there.

To me it is saddening to see that people are still worrying about this, and I have seen 'feminists' do and say some awful things. Things that make me not want to say 'I am a feminist' - when I say it I mean that women are equal to men. When they say it they mean women are better than men and men are all horrible and must pay for centuries of persecution against women.

Well you know if that's the case then they need to look at who's ancestors persecuted who's and start worrying.

People are people.

Scientists are people that do science - end of.