iblog

Matthew: There was a stage when the UK’s biggest military procurement deal in history was in danger of being scuppered. The Joint Strike Fighter is a joint venture between the UK and US, designed to equip the USAF, USMC, RAF and RN with the next generation of advanced strike aircraft. The UK demanded operational sovereignty, i.e., they wanted all the technology necessary to operate the aircraft without relying on the US for spare parts, maintenance etc. The US were reluctant to complete this technology transfer, but it seems that procurement minister Lord Drayson has talked them round. Presumably he has urged them to compare Britain’s recent miltary campaigns with the those of the US and asked them to ’spot the difference’.

Steve Robinson: It’s been a long time since Apple first hinted that their minimalist technological stylings would at last be cast upon the world of phones. The Apple faithful were looking forward to the New Year and an announcment at Macworld in January which would finally shed light on the project. Unfortunately, Cisco have gone and spoilt the New Years party by announcing the release of their own Linksys ‘iPhone’ VoIP range of devices. You see, Cisco have actually owned the much-coined name since the early 1990’s, and so Apple will presumably have to find a new name for their product. There is a chance that Apple could still purchase the name from Cisco, though perhaps a recent failure to reach an agreed price may explain the delay in using the name. The loss of the instantly recognisable iProduct name is a blow to the launch, but knowing Apple’s natural aptitude for marketing, I think it’ll be the quality of the product that speaks volumes, not how it’s identified.

Steve Robinson:

Every week I take a look at the strangest gadget from the past 7 days.
This week, say goodbye to boring hoovering forever…

“Dusty Shoes”

Tired of cleaning the house? Repulsed by the idea of hoovering the living room again? Then you need the new Electrolux Carpet-Cleaning Shoes! Specially designed by boffs for people who are too lazy to do their hoovering (or should we now say ‘Electroluxing’?), the shoes suck up dirt through some as-yet unknown mechanism to leave your floor spotless. Say goodbye to boring hoovering, and say hello to ‘fun’ foot-based cleaning!

… However. There are a few drawbacks to this little idea. Where is the dirt supposed to collect once its been sucked up? In a bag that’s strapped to the leg, like some bizarre, inverted domestic colostomy bag? What about the vibrating feet? Sure, that’s going to be nice when you finally take off the shoes and can’t feel the ground. And how about those tricky under-table spots, are you going to lie on your back and slide in under the table and stamp your feet about?

Hmm… best have a rethink, guys.

The Electrolux Cleaning Shoes is still in the concept stage, but expect developments next year.

Charlotte: I had a Christmas card yesterday from an American friend who has just graduated after four and a half years of study. It seems that in America there is a lot of leeway in how long you can take to complete your degree and you graduate when you have earned sufficient credits. It made me think that it would make financial sense for students in the UK if there was more flexibility here. Now that top-up fees have been introduced, more and more students are having to take part-time work and yet are faced with the knowledge that the more hours they work the lower their chances are of gaining a First or Upper Second. If they were able to spread their studies over four or five years life would be better for them. At the moment part-time degrees are few and far between and this has put many Sixth Formers off applying to go to University.

Charlotte: I just can’t work out why budget airlines don’t have designated seating on flights. Surely it cannot cost more to allocate a seat on check-in even if passengers check in online or to print a boarding pass with a seat number. Instead you have a scrum at the boarding gate with people trying to elbow others out the way and when you get on the plane it’s even worse. It would be far more sensible to make people fill up the rows from the back working forwards but instead you have people wanting to sit near the front and blocking the aisles as they try to heave their bags into the overhead lockers as other passengers try to squeeze past to find a seat. Having said all that I shouldn’t complain. I flew to Spain two weeks ago for little more than I had paid the week before to go by train to Leeds!

Matthew: I, like one third of people that graduated from university in 2005, have a feeling I studied the wrong course. I took a BA in Geography, which left me with little in the way of specific skills or knowledge especially applicable to the contemporary workplace. I suspect I would be vastly more employable has I studied a subject which taught me something of the business world or gave me a field to specialise in.

This perhaps, is a somewhat narrow-minded analysis of my education. If you think a degree should give you a set of skills which will give you a direct path into a career, and sustain your development along that specific career path, then my BA, and thousands like it, are indeed somewhat deficient. However, surely education is equally about developing one’s mental faculties and maturing the personality in a more general sense. I can’t complain about my degree in this sense, and greatly valued my time at university in terms of personal development, even if it hasn’t landed me straight into a generously salaried career.

Charlotte: I am a second year student at Cambridge and was educated at the local comprehensive. I was therefore interested to read an article at the weekend saying that despite the millions spent by Oxbridge to encourage comprehensive pupils to apply, the majority of their state school entrants are still from selective schools and of these most come from three or four grammar schools in London and Essex. One head of a Sixth Form College said that he does not encourage his pupils to apply because rejection can be so demoralising that they may not then strive to get into other Universities. I thought this a rather odd attitude. Firstly by the time you know whether you have been accepted you have already applied to five other Universities and in most cases will already hold several offers. Secondly life is full of disappointments but that is no reason not to try. How depressing to know in later life that you had the potential to try for Oxbridge but didn’t because you were afraid of failure.

Charlotte: I was reading the other day about how much energy we could all save if we switched off electrical appliances when not in use rather than leaving them on standby. This reminded me of when my grandparents came to look after my brother and me about ten years ago when my parents were away for the weekend. They went around at night switching off everything in sight – I think the fridge freezer was the only thing that escaped! Needless to say my brother and I thought it was very funny. Little did we know that they were being green without knowing it! In actual fact my grandparents and others of their generation have lots of green habits: they have been composting for years, long before it became trendy, my grandma always opens presents up very carefully so that she can reuse the wrapping paper and hardly ever uses her tumble drier as she likes her washing to smell fresh from hanging it out. All they need to do now is to ditch their BMW in favour of something more environmentally friendly!

Matthew: Disney are remaking Enid Blyton’s famous five story’s with ‘a contemporary twist’. Dick, Julian, Anne and George (even by Blyton’s standards, thats a pretty high innuendo ratio…) become Cole, Dylan, Joe and Annie, and there will be no lashings of ginger beer after defeating the latest band of nefarious smugglers to show up whilst the gang are on holiday.

Will this ‘contemporization’ remove the charm of the Famous Five stories? Changing the way they speak and behave to make them more like today’s youth is likely to make the stories unrecognizable. Instead of searching a network of underground caverns laden with obstacles and adventure to find their missing comrade, Cole could just text Dylan to say ‘I’m in the 3rd on the left, where r u?’. It seems like Disney are just cashing in on a much-loved brand in order to achieve the ‘local market penetration’ they are after at the moment.

Charlotte: Would you eat road-kill? A new BBC programme produced by Jamie Oliver’s production company will be showing us how to make such delicacies as badger meat-balls and squirrel stew. The very thought of stopping my car, picking up a squashed badger and manhandling it into the boot makes me feel ill. Then there’s the thought of skinning the poor thing! What I find most peculiar though is the fact that Fergus Drennan the presenter is a vegetarian. According to him “If you haven’t seen or heard it being killed and it’s not been killed on your behalf, then it’s OK” - how weird!