Archive for May 9th, 2008
- Peninsular Arts, Theatre 1, Roland Levinsky Building
posted by Ems Coombes
5 Men Dancing is a wholly inclusive company. When I say inclusive I mean ability, race, colour – everything.
The performers all have a dance history but this is contact improvisation so it calls for all the traditional theatre and dance rules to be thrown out of the window. Every part of the stage is used, including the audience zone, and audience participation is poured into the pot, found props are used, even the lighting and sound are improvised (much to the pleasure of the technicians, although a few stress induced grey hairs where to be found).
The beautiful thing about this performance is that, at one time, you can have juxtaposed image and text, contradictory emotions almost like split screen, Thomas talking about his daughter and his doubt on raising children and on the other side Dan standing on a chair holding a bucket while Rik prowled round him roaring occasionally.
The performers are joined by a singer, Sarah (the only woman and a temporary member) who also improvises what she sings, when she sings it, pitch, tempo, even where she places herself. Her voice adds a silky quality and only adds to the performance.
Unfortunately, this is the last performance this year but keep your eyes and ears peeled for future dates because they are well worth a gander, or check out Adam Benjamin’s site.
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May 9th, 2008
posted by Cptn
Gordon Brown has begun his tour of the South West by visiting the Eden Project in Cornwall.
The Eden Project has contributed £700 million to the local economy. Eden uses local suppliers wherever possible, employs local people and supports local businesses in Cornwall and the South West.
He will then visit the East End Community Village scheme, built on previously derelict land, the project is part of Plymouth City Council’s Sustainable Community Strategy. The village provides a range of community services including a special housing scheme for the elderly, a Primary Care Centre, shops and a business enterprise centre to help local firms get started.
The £14 million scheme won the Regeneration Award at the Local Government Chronicle Awards, held on Monday 17 March at the Grosvenor House Hotel.
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May 9th, 2008
The weekly technology column from those good people at Plymouth’s Orange Crate
On May 3 1978 an employee of DEC, a since defunct computer manufacturer, was responsible for the first recognized spam mail. Sent to 400 recipients via the Arpanet (the internet’s forerunner), its purpose was to advertise the company’s new range of products by inviting the recipients to attend two presentations. Response was swift and an uproar followed – it may have been a harmless marketing ploy but people were obviously feeling uncomfortable about this potential intrusion into their private worlds.
Despite this early foray, it took many years for spam mail to become the mainstream thorn in the side of the internet that it is today. In the early ’90s a number of companies started taking the initiative by gathering lists of emails and sending thousands of advertising and promotional messages at a time. The online world began to realise that this could easily turn into a downward spiral, and they were right in more ways than one.
In the most obvious sense, the sheer amount of spam mail is constantly on the rise – an estimated 100 billion spam messages are currently sent every day, and trawling through junk mail every morning has become an unwanted international pass-time. Although the majority of spam today is still concerned with selling you a product – whether it be a Viagra substitute or debt consolidation – a worrying 9 per cent is estimated to be directly linked to internet scamming.
These scammers actively engage in fraudulent activity to achieve a number of nefarious goals. From gaining personal details such as log-in particulars and credit card details, to downloading various spyware, malware, trojans, and viruses onto unsuspecting PCs, their activities can result in anything up to a serious amount of damage. So how do you spot these potential time bombs amongst your regular email?
Well, thankfully, much of the spam mail itself isn’t always that intelligent. Having often been created by a computer program itself, there are a number of tell-tale signs that the human eye will pick up on with a bit of training. For instance, I received a message addressed to ‘Account Holder’ from the ‘CEO’ of ‘Llyods Bank’ (no seriously, that’s not a typo…) telling me that I had to lick on the link below and change my on line banking details due to security changes. Now, even if I did have an account at the bank they were trying to rip off, I hope I would’ve seen through this particular scam.
But seriously, watch out for bad spelling, unrealistic signatures (how often to get an email from a CEO?), and lack of personalisation – all clear signs before you even read the content. In addition to this, a lot of spam is sent through hijacked servers and sites, so check who your mail comes from and whether the associated website is even vaguely linked to what the message is offering. And if the email address is something along the lines of quwiortetrrewyyr@yahoo.com, then it’s fake.
We’ve all had experience of spam email in the past, and to a certain degree are aware of its varying forms. But the best rule to follow is most certainly ‘If in doubt, don’t open it, don’t read it, and most definitely don’t click on the link….’. Let’s face it, if you weren’t expecting the email, or it’s not from someone you recognise, then it’s probably not something you’re interested in. Trust me – you can’t win the Portuguese lottery if you didn’t even enter.
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May 9th, 2008
posted by Cptn
Part of the £80 million that Exeter University plans to invest in science, medicine and engineering over the next three years will be spent on looking into climate change and sustainable futures.
The environment is part of five broad themes for investment, which also includes systems biology, extrapolar planets, functional material and translational medicine, and personalise healthcare and public health. And if you don’t know what any of them are, then you probably won’t be one of the many new appointments that are promised by the university.
Apparently, ‘this new approach will encourage academics from different disciplines to work together on joint research projects. For example, engineers, physicists and mathematicians will be working with biologists on systems biology projects and social scientists will be working with physical scientists on climate change studies’.
But the press release fails to say if cats will be working with dogs.
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May 9th, 2008
