What is happening to the UK education system?

This is going to make the UK education system a laughing stock around the world. According to the headline (click on the title to read the article) the UK education system is in freefall - "Universities face 'biggest cuts since Great Depression."

Vice-chancellors have been warned that funding may be slashed by 35 per cent over the next five years, it has emerged. The warning – delivered in a series of meetings between Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, and university bosses – would represent the biggest cut in resources since the 1930s, it is claimed. It would be equivalent to the current £5,441 annual Government subsidy for each student being reduced to just £3,537.

Universities said the reduction would have devastating consequences for higher education in England – jeapordising the sector’s world class status. Many universities will seek to make savings by axing loss-making courses, closing libraries, cramming more students into lectures and failing to repair crumbling buildings. It is also likely to lead to an increase in the number of foreign students who can be charged much higher fees than British undergraduates.

How can a country as well developed and with a thriving education sector known throughout the world as "world class" be so shortsighted as to reduce the funding for higher education by a whopping 35%? The repercussions will be devastating and further erode the economic status of the UK which is already close to seeing a double dip recession.

This is on top of the reports that many 3-year degrees will be reduced to a 2-year program. You have to wonder where this is all leading - a surveillance state with more cameras than anywhere else in the world and with an education system that is going to the dogs!!

This is a very sad day for anyone coming through the educational system in the UK and who will be looking to get a good education. Not since the Great Depression has there been such widespread cuts in public funding.

When is rape actually rape?

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Stephen Hawking: mankind must move to outer space within a century

The human race must look to outer space within the next century or it will become extinct, Professor Stephen Hawking has warned. The renowned astrophysicist said he fears mankind is in great danger and its future "must be in space" if it is to survive.

In an interview he said threats to the existence of the human race such as war, resource depletion and overpopulation meant it was at its greater risk ever. Although a long advocate of colonising space in order to continue man's reign, this is his direst warning to date.

"It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million," he told the website Big Think. "Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth but to spread out into space. We have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space. That is why I'm in favour of manned, or should I say 'personed', space flight."

My question is whether we will again make a mess of any future planets or stars that we invade and colonise? Or should that be more like "how long" will it take before me mess up our existence elsewhere? We may be a special species when compared to the other animals on planet earth, but we are also the only species that can't seem to co-exist with other species. We have become so greedy we destroy the very fabric of our natural surroundings so that we can no longer inhabit it as well as the other species which have probably been there a heck of a lot longer.

Taken in this light, is there any point in space exploration at all and wouldn't it be better to work on the problem that caused this need to migrate in the first place? Human greed?

Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins dies, aged 61

What a sad loss to snooker. Alex Higgins is dead aged 61 and for me was a snooker genius and the best of his generation - so exciting to watch and always unpredictable he was compulsive viewing for me as a teen and probably, along with Jimmy White, one of the reasons I started playing snooker myself.

In May, the ailing champion former world number one had found the strength to attend a charity event in his honour, where friends and former players hoped to raise money to pay for further treatment. Once described by fellow snooker professional Steve Davis as “the one true genius snooker has produced”, Higgins was considered by many the greatest player ever seen but fought a battle with alcohol.

With so many demons to dispel, now you can finally rest in peace.

Swiss bank to lift lid on hidden Kafka works

It's an interesting question to ponder whether an author has any rights after his death as Franz Kafka clearly didn't.

Franz Kafka was one of the most enigmatic authors of the 20th Century. He died of tuberculosis in 1924 aged only 40 and, if his own last wishes had been followed, novels such as The Trial and The Castle would never have seen the light of day.

Kafka asked his friend and fellow writer, Max Brod, to burn his manuscripts after his death. Brod refused, publishing the novels and taking letters and other writings to Israel where he left them to his secretary Esther Hoffe - who then bequeathed them to her two daughters.

It seems there is very little honour not only in publishing but anywhere these days!

Gunshot survivor gets prosthetic face

You have to marvel at the miracle of science these days! This woman got shot full in the face and which left a gaping hole. Not only did she survive it, but now she's had corrective surgery (was there ever such an understatement?) and has her very own "new" face.

Chrissy Steltz, 27, from Milwaukie, Oregon, was shot accidentally at close range by a friend at a party in March 1999. The shot blew a huge hole in her face where her eyes and nose used to be. Mrs Steltz went into a coma and spent six weeks in hospital. Doctors said it was a miracle that she was not killed but the blast left her badly disfigured. She was also blinded and lost part of her hearing. Mrs Steltz, who married last year and has a one-year-old child, wore a sleeping mask to cover the hole but has now been given a prosthetic replacement 11 years later.

This is an amazing testament to the courage of the human spirit. How many people even if they had survived physically, would have curled up and died inside? how many people would have gone into a deep depression from which they would never have come out again, certainly not intact or in one piece?

I hear a talk show coming along..."Ok, Oprah be right with you in a minute!"

Sucker for soccer: octopus predicts World Cup finalist

You couldn't make this up and has to rank as a crazy story - a British born octopus in Germany called Paul has correctly predicted the results of a number of the World Cup games?

Spain's victory over Germany in the World Cup last night will come as no surprise to those following one of the competition's most successful pundits – for the result had already been foretold by Paul the Octopus, a creature that has achieved celebrity status with the accuracy of its predictions.

Dubbed the psychic octopus, the English-born Paul (hatched at the Sea Life Park in Weymouth) has correctly predicted all of Germany's World Cup results including the 1-0 defeat last night. He predicted Germany's wins against England and Argentina, and even Serbia's defeat of Germany in the group stage.

Such is the popularity of his selections that, on the eve of last night's game, the German news channel n-tv broadcast Paul's prediction live.

What will we have next? A chimpanzeee who can plat chess and beat Grand Masters? A one-legged gerbil that can perform keyhole surgery? A cat that can tell when rabbits are lying?

What is the world coming to eh?