shake-up for education in the UK

I'll paste the whole of the news snippet in here because it says it better than I can. But in short we've lost the DfES and gained a whole host of other acronymistic departments for all sorts of things instead. We think we'll open our own department: the department for acronyms, floccinaucinihilipilifications and tribulations (DAFT).

Balls takes charge of new ministry for children
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has abolished the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), dividing its responsibilities between the Department for Children, Schools and Families under Ed Balls, and a new Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) under John Denham. Balls' department will take responsibility for all 14- to 19-year-old education, including in colleges. However, funding for adult education will be controlled by the DIUS. The £7 billion annual budget for 16- to 19-year-olds will in future be channelled through local education authorities rather than the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).

Bristol born Converging World launches..

A while ago John Pontin mentioned this crazy idea of building wind turbines in India to offset our energy usage here in the UK, whilst using the profits to invest in more renewable energy sources. Well it turns out that he's actually doing it - with the help of a few other people including Simon Manley who is tasked with the idea of promoting the idea and making it work commercially. The movement is called Converging World and it's gathering a huge amount of momentum and news coverage.

We're in full support of this particular world domination plan, not least because it's a good idea but also because it was born in Bristol (well - Chew Magna!). There should hopefully be an e-newsletter in the near future that you can sign up to if you want to follow progress.

one in four web retailers don't know web shopping laws

I thought I'd highlight this snippet from Outlaw about the lack of awareness of both shoppers and e-tailers about consumer rights and cooling off periods etc. It's based on a report from the Office of Fair Trading.

In certain cases you actually have more rights buying from the Internet than from a high street store...

mailbox organising tool for thunderbird

A while ago Si found this system for sorting out your inbox into actionable, archivable and holdable items if you used THunderbird as a mail client. I thought I'd post the location of the latest version I found because the one that you find first is for older versions of thunderbird.

Anyways, version 0.4.3 of TB Quickmove works on Thunderbird 2.0.whatever. Enjoy!

Broad Street top five....

In the interests of locally sourced food, I thought it would be good if we could compile a list of the best places to go for lunch in and around Broad Street.

If you want a really good fry up then the best place to go is Cafe Central run by Chris, Marguerite and their team of smiley happy faces. We have a company fry-up there every single month and I have to say that it's just lovely.

Ok - for sandwiches there are two options. The first is definitely Maximillions which is the best place for roast meat sarnies, and sumptuous but fattening salads. The second option is the fantastic sandwich company on Small Street.

But for those of you into their gourmet picnic lunches there's St Nicholas Market. A wide variety of different types of lunchy bites.. olives, humous, feta-stuffed jalapenos, Italian, Moroccan, Jamaican, amazing hot-dogs (Pork through Venison through Lamb and other things with mash).....the Gurt Lush cheese company tops it off with some unpasteurised Brie (mmm). And on Wednesdays there's the Farmer's Market in Corn Street. All of our company birthdays are fuelled by the food from here.

Jealous? You don't have to be. Just pop over, park your bike in our quad and then take a wander. You won't regret it!

If you've got any others to add to the list just say so.

Restaurant guide coming up...