A Mosque (1986)
A mosque is where Muslim people learn, read and pray.Where I go with my little brothers we have to pay 2 pounds each week for learning everyday.We learn the Koran and how to pray.We have to go to everyday,if we don't we are punished.We must take an excuse note to say why we didn't come.I go in a van to the mosque Then I go to a big room to learn how to pray.We stay for one hour.Each week there is a test if you pass you go to another group for lessons.After the test you go to your own class where the register is taken.Then you must read to your teacher for one hour,if you make one mistake you are punished.The punishment is a beating with a bamboo stick.When we are finished we are taken home by van.
Shelina Akther(11)
From the BBC's Domesday Reloaded project, a remarkable - if somewhat misguided - attempt to document life in modern Britain circa 1986. Cool stuff.
In 1986, 900 years after William the Conqueror’s original Domesday Book, the BBC published the Domesday Project. The project was probably the most ambitious attempt ever to capture the essence of life in the United Kingdom. Over a million people contributed to this digital snapshot of the country.
The whole of the UK – including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man – was divided into 23,000 4x3km areas called Domesday Squares or “D-Blocks”.
Schools and community groups surveyed over 108,000 square km of the UK and submitted more than 147,819 pages of text articles and 23,225 amateur photos, cataloguing what it was like to live, work and play in their community.
This was about documenting everyday life - the ordinary rather than the extraordinary.
The project used the cutting edge technology of the day, and the data was eventually presented on a special type of Laser-Disc, read by a BBC master computer and navigated using an innovative tracker-ball pointing system.
But the technology didn’t catch on and the computers became very expensive for schools and libraries to buy. Very few people ever got to see the fruits of all of their hard work.
I heart Nixie tubes
I'm looking to buy myself a nixie tube clock for (late) Christmas and ran into these awesome designs.
The economic consequences of the referendum that wasn't
The referendum may not be happening, but yesterday's events will have a deep impact on Greek and European affairs.
As I speculated yesterday, Prime Minister Papandreou explicitly said today that his main rationale for calling a referendum was to putt a stop to speculation that Greece is considering exiting the Eurozone. The chain of events that led to the referendum being called off demonstrated beyond doubt that the political classes will be keeping Greece in the Euro at all costs.
The fact there is now a credible commitment is very important. It means that some of the funds that have exited the country will find their way back to its banks and its economy, it means that bond investors need not fear Greece inflating its debt away or engaging in unilateral funny business, and it means that a great source of uncertainty has been dealt with.
This is not to say that staying the Euro is the right course of action for Greece. But since this seems to be what a majority of the Greek people want, making a binding commitment is the right way to go. There will be more investment, lower spreads, and an increased willingness of the rest of the EU to engage constructively.
As I speculated yesterday, Prime Minister Papandreou explicitly said today that his main rationale for calling a referendum was to putt a stop to speculation that Greece is considering exiting the Eurozone. The chain of events that led to the referendum being called off demonstrated beyond doubt that the political classes will be keeping Greece in the Euro at all costs.
The fact there is now a credible commitment is very important. It means that some of the funds that have exited the country will find their way back to its banks and its economy, it means that bond investors need not fear Greece inflating its debt away or engaging in unilateral funny business, and it means that a great source of uncertainty has been dealt with.
This is not to say that staying the Euro is the right course of action for Greece. But since this seems to be what a majority of the Greek people want, making a binding commitment is the right way to go. There will be more investment, lower spreads, and an increased willingness of the rest of the EU to engage constructively.