Size Zero Debate

I thought that this brief comment on Brandish.tv was interesting as it is a view of size zero women from a male perspective. It is so often discussed by us women, being all about looking good for work, for other women, for ourselves, so what of the men? Size zero does not appeal to the writer at Brandish. Does it appeal to you?

Justin.tv

Justin has a headcam strapped to his head. This headcam links to Justin.tv. This means you can see what he sees 24 hours a day. I'm struggling a little with this concept - check out the camera he has on his head, it is huge, everyone would know he was filming. And as far as I can work out he is a major net geek (not that there is anything wrong with net geeks but this means that when he talks about the net I don't understand...). Also on the site users can constantly comment on what they see in a little chat room under the video. This could potentially be interesting when there is something interesting going on, but right now he is sleeping! (Major time difference because he is in the US).

I am seriously struggling writing this because i'm truely unsure what I think about it. Two things are certain though, Justin has been live for 9 days, 10 hours, five minutes right now, and he has no intention of hanging up his camera anytime soon.

200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade in Britain

Today marks the 200th anniversity of the abolition of the slave trade here in Britain.

The BBC News website has several stories following this including this one about a religious walk that took place through London led by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York yesterday.

And here is information on the government website about the bi-centenary and the history of slavery, and here on the same site is a list of events to mark the abolition.

Twittervision 12 hour warning

I've taken to hiberating my laptop while revising, and leaving net pages up etc without using them for several days. I think it must be the computer version of having a messy bedroom. For some reason revision seems to bring out my messy side. I think it is having one million things out at once; textbooks, handwritten notes, handouts, typed notes, statute books, paper and pens to make notes on etc.

Anyway imagine my surprise when I switched my laptop on to find this screen (photo). Twittervision actually has a twelve hour warning system, I assume calculated according to when you logged in considering my laptop was off for about fourteen hours (I am really not sad enough to watch it for that long). And i'm wondering why they bother to have it... (except obviously to remind people like me to clean up our internet windows). Logically speaking it must mean people are watching Twittervision for 12 hours, and it might be just me but isn't that slightly concerning?!

'How I Changed the World Today' blog

How I Changed the World Today is the personal blog of a woman called Julia. She blogs every day about one thing that she has done towards changing the world. It is very interesting to read, and although not completely relevant to us in the UK because we obviously can't join the same initiatives etc., it could be a breeding group for ideas to join or start similar projects over here.

Twitter Drinking Game

Blog post about this here.

Twit This

I know i always seem to be talking about Twitter, and I do apologise, but it is a very fast growing site will lots of new addons appearing every minute. There is Twitterific for Mac, and Twitteroo for Windows, Twittervision which I have posted about previously, and a whole host of other progammes and sites. The newest is Twit This which I have just added to my site on the right. This allows people to link your site easily by turning it into a Tiny Url (which I have also previously posted about), and then adding it to Twitter. It is a simple concept but potentially quite effective if alot of people added it to their pages, allowing sharing of what you are reading to be quick and easy. However I think i'm going to stick with my Tiny Url on my toolbar for now since constantly linking your own site is neither fun, nor particularly ethical or nice, and I have yet to see Twit This anywhere else.

Mashable discusses Twit This here.
TwitterBuzz shows the most popular twitter links here.

kiva.org

Kiva.org gives you the opportunity to loan money to entrepreneurs in developing countries in order to help them establish their businesses. Over the period of the loan (usually 6-12 months) you can also receive email journal updates from the business that you are sponsoring. The way I think this site triumphs over other more established charities is that it allows you to choose who you lend to. Often the inability to keep track of exactly what your money is being used for is what prevents people from giving money to charity. You can view profiles and people's businesses. You know directly who you are helping.

Apparently the people who are featured have been chosen specifically by Field Partners such as CREDIT (who among other things organise loans to vulnerable women), and ACTION NOW KENYA, to ensure that you are likely to have your money repayed. To date kiva.org has a 100% repayment rate to lenders, but there is no security so in theory you could 'lose' your money. You gain no interest from your loan but to my mind this is irrelevant because of the impression you will be making on someone's life. And if you do not get your money repayed then surely it is still worth it for giving someone a chance.

You can choose how much of the money the borrower needs that you loan (you can loan from only $25), and so their total money can be borrowed from a large number of lenders. If you have some spare money, and want to give to a worthy cause I think this might be the way forward. This is helping people to help themselves without crippling interest rates that would usually attach to perceived 'high risk' enterprise.

You can follow KivaThon on Twitter.

twittervision

There is nothing I can say about twittervision except wow... and you could spend hours watching this. It's like having a constant public timeline, showing you all twitter updates in real time, on a googlemap. Twitter on a whole new level. It's worth looking at just for the one-off experience. Only now i'm not sure what to do, it just goes on and on and on... I'm thinking good if you want to find interesting people to add, bad if you want to do something productive, or have a life. I'm already slightly bored and feel a bit like a loser for watching it and like i'm watching time tick away. That might however just be because I have so much to do. I'm not sure. Make up your own mind, but do make sure you check it out at least once.

Quotes

How is it that wise people manage to say things so eloquently when I can barely manage to explain a fully formed concept I have in my head in under 100 words (OK so slight exaggeration but I'm not quote-worthy by any stretch of the imagination).

Just a few examples:
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. ~Oscar Wilde

Better to keep your mouth shut and appear a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt. - unknown

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy? - Albert Einstein

I particularly love the Albert Einstein quote because it really flows and seems to ring true. It explains so much more beautifully than 'either I'm insane or they are insane? aggggggggggggggghhh which is it?' Doesn't quite have the same impact does it?

Big links to small links at tinyurl.com

Just discovered a highly useful thing for anyone who uses Twitter, and has issues with posting links due to the 140 character limit. At tinyurl.com you type in your full length link and it throws a small length one back at you. I'm sure it also has other uses other than Twitter but I can't think of any. Perhaps to avoid links looking majorly scary by containing 6 lines of osgnakdnfkjanfjanfjklslnfdkldjnajkfndskjnfsjnfaskjdal at the end.

For a minimising example
This is the traditional link from the BBC Website of the story about whether our British Accents can create success in the US: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6470095.stm

And this is the tinyurl link for the same article: http://tinyurl.com/33ue5d

Reduced from 45 characters to 25 characters just like magic. That's an extra twenty characters of your twitter freed. Are you amazed? I was.

Revision Fun?!

I'm finding it really hard to revise so I thought i might do a google search to see what I could do to make revision 'fun'. It turned out to be just about as helpful as going to a careers advisor without a clue about what you want to do. The best suggestion I found was posted on the bbc website here among other less helpful suggestions.

The idea is that everytime you are texting your friends you put something you need to remember for the exam at the end of the text. Sounds good right? Well it would be except
1) Law isn't really the kind of thing you can revise with short text sentances unless you leave out all the case law eg For IP. Patents you need an Invention, Novelty, Inventive Step and Industrial Application. Ok so that is a whole text in itself, and then what about the case law for each section, where in the Act can you find them etc.
2) None of the people I text do my subjects which effectively makes it impossible. Would have been useful when I was doing my gcses though, maybe I should suggest it to my brother...

Blooks and Turning a Blog into one

I learnt a new internet term today. A 'blook' is apparently a blog/website that has been turned into a book. I'm always amazed by the rate that new words are apparently added to our language. I'd only just got used to the word 'blog'. But anyway, moving on, The Lulu Blooker Prize 2007 has announced it's shortlist. So if you are interested in discovering what a 'blook' really is, then have a browse.

Also this article from shinyshiny gives suggestions of how you could turn your blog into a blook if it takes your fancy!

CelebrityDogWatcher.com

The world of celebrity seems to have gone slightly mad of late, and much as I am lothe to admit it i'm being sucked in. First it began last year with Pink Is The New Blog, and now I have discovered celebritydogwatcher.com which is even more random. This site is dedicated to pictures of celebrities with their dogs and I have to step forward, be brave and state, yes i'm slightly hooked (although for some reason Mischa Barton and her dog Ziggy seem to get more than their fair share of coverage). After much rationalisation I think i'm becoming hooked (or am telling myself i'm becoming hooked) because I love dogs, and I think the dog you choose says alot about you as a person. Golden Retriever can mean your a softy at heart, Chihuahua (particularly the long haired variety) generally means you are a bit of a poser and don't want the hassle of what I would consider to be a 'proper' dog, anything terrier like means that you like a bit of attitude/character etc. But then again maybe the celebrities don't choose their own dogs anyway, or is that a little over cynical?! Either way looking at the site once a month gives a little bit of light relief, another dose of some cute dogs, and a dose of the odd cute celebrity (Adam Brody in the picture for example).

ps on a Law note, due to Intellectual Property this year i'm now highly paranoid i'm going to infringe some IP rights, eg Copyright regarding photographs but I think i'm safe as long as I make sure I source where I have borrowed them from... Gosh sometimes the phrase 'ignorance is bliss' is more than a little true when it comes to law, knowledge can make things so darn complicated. Lol although i'd rather know than not know if I was going to commit a criminal offence, and then be able to not commit it!

So...
The picture is from this post at celebritydogwatcher.com.

Law and The Diaries of UK Law Students

As, since my couple of dissertation posts, I haven't mentioned much about my law life I thought I should point people in the direction of a blog that is purely about law: The Diaries of UK Law Students.

This blog has expanded since I mentioned it last year, from 'The Diary of a UK Law Student' to 'Diaries' due, I assume, to the increased number of writers. Two of the four contributors have their own blogs, which means (unlike me) that they have a much more concentrated focus on law in 'the Diaries'.

Another relatively new law blog is BabyBarista. It is loaded with a disclaimer stating it is a 'fictional account of a pupil barrister' which raises questions in my mind as to whether it is really fictional but to be honest I don't really mind either way. It is an interesting account whether it is true to life or not.

And in case anyone is dying to know what is going on in my law life, yesterday I went on a boat tour round Southampton docks for Carriage of Goods (see photo), and today is the first day of four weeks of Easter. What does Easter mean for me? It means revision for my three final exams, a piece of coursework which is worth 40% of Carriage and BUSA Nationals. As usual so much to do, so little time!

moo.com Creativity

I'm considering getting some cards printed at moo.com, a site I newly discovered through someone's twittering, and found this post on the moo blog. It highlights what they describe as 'a new trend' of photography using printed moo cards as part of a larger image (of the place from whence they came i assume - rather than somewhere that looks very similar). A flickr group has been created just for these images. You can find it here.

The photo from this post is by Pirate 605. Here is the photo in its original context on flickr.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Irish Wolfhound Puppies can be found on dailypuppy.com today, celebrating the traditionally high drinking Irish holiday!

Here is a site all about Irish Culture and St Patrick's Day
Here is what Wikipedia has to say about it

Red nose-ify yourself!

Head down to http://noseify.rednoseday.com/ to add red noses, for Red Nose Day, to any of your photos! I've done it to a few pictures and actually it's a vaguely amusing distraction.

The Red Nose Day Moblog

A not so new obsession of mine is with blogs and moblogs and twitter, and just generally in other people. This is I think why sites like The Red Nose Day Moblog are helpful and successful. I like seeing what other people are doing to help, and that there are people supporting such an important charitable event. You can send in your own pictures or videos of you in a red nose which will be posted on the site to show your support. You will be in the company of not only other likeminded 'normal' people but celebrities such as the Sugababes and Girls Aloud if that is what spurs you on to get involved. Remember just by buying a red nose you are giving money to the cause, and you also get a square of white chocolate and some face stickers (my red nose box is open in front of me). Get involved.

The Official Red Nose Day site
You can also download wallpapers like the small thumbnail of the Andrex puppy, or the Sugababes, or others from the official Red Nose Day website.

Shutdown Day

Think you can last a day without your computer? I did yesterday so i'm wondering if i therefore should not feel guilted into taking part in Shutdown Day on the 24th March. As with anything of this ilk it would be super cool if hundreds, thousands, or millions of people took part and made a huge impact on the electricity used on that day, as well as potentially improving their own quality of life, but it seems unlikely that millions of people will (although according to the website over 45,000 people have said that they will)! I will probably take part, if not just as an excuse to spend some time outside, or drawing, or writing (with a pen and paper - just like in the days of yore!).

Shiny Shiny Columns

I love the new shinyshiny.tv columns. They address a wide range of issues from addictions to meeting people online, to streaming tv over the internet, to email etiquette. I have to admit however *hanging my head slightly in shame*, i haven't always had love for them. When they first appeared I did an grunt similar to that of an old person, and muttered a little to myself about how they cluttered up the page where I could be looking at pretty pictures of gadgets that i don't need but like the look of. Oh and that I wouldn't ever possibly have the time to read the columns (since my once a day checks of shiny shiny quite often these days consist of me scrolling very quickly down the page when i should be doing work, quickly informing myself of what i've missed while being tied down to my desk [actually I say desk but currently I can't use mine because it is suffering from desk mess syndrome - thank goodness for laptops]). But the thing is I find them relevant, and even when they are not relevant to me I find them interesting. And so I make time. I have given in to change. What is next for me I wonder? Perhaps an proactive adult stance to deciding what to do after uni. Only time will tell.

And talking of relevance while I was reading this column called 'Why IM is ruining my life', a lovely orange flashing popup window appeared distracting me slightly from reading it, in fact it's flashing now, hold on...

A Year of Living Generously

A while ago I joined the community at http://generous.org.uk/. The idea behind this site is that ordinary people living ordinary lives can make a difference by making small decisions in their every day lives. What I like about it is that you don't have to do anything. If you don't visit the site you just receive emails every couple of months about what are the most common 'actions' to take part in, and information about current issues (petitions etc).

Today I received my email. I joined the action, 'unplug your chargers'. Did you know that only 5% of the energy used by phone chargers is actually used to charge the phone? The rest is lost by leaving the plugs on while not charging the phone. I think that this is why this site works, the things they inform you about are things which anyone can do by just taking that little bit more care. Another action i'm doing this month is not overfilling your kettle. Did you know by not overfilling your kettle you can save the energy needed to light a house for a day? Well now you do. And for all us students who sit around drinking tea, watching neighbours and occasionally doing work, kettle filling is something we can control! Make a difference by making small changes to your lifestyle.

TPT blog and the LG Shine

Just discovered that Tara PT has a blog, you can find it here. She has also done a review of the LG Shine phone which is my new favourite thing to want at the moment. You can find information about the phone here, and a video blog about it on shinyshiny.tv here. And there is also a dedicated LG Shine Blog here.

Holly's Inbox

I'm having a bit of a weird day, and it just got a whole lot weirder. Do you like reading emails of strangers? Do you like feeling like a bit of a stalker (if you use Facebook you must do)? Then check out Holly's Inbox which is meant to be a bit like reading a book, or perhaps a diary, only it's in the form of emails... I have to be honest I don't really get it (and have enough of my own emails to check) but it is there, it's a little kooky, and well it's a good procrastination tool.

Here is the article at shinyshiny.tv where I discovered it.

iPhonic: iPhone blog

This is just a quick post for all of those who, like me, can't get the iPhone off their minds! Check out iPhonic which is a blog dedicated to all things iPhone. For all those who aren't as gadget obsessed (why not?!) I'm keeping this post very short. In fact that's it.

Lavender Week: Raising Breast Cancer Awareness in the Young

This week is Lavender Week, which is run by the Lavender Trust at Breast Cancer Care. The idea of the Trust is to raise awareness in young people of Breast Cancer, and to provide help and support young women with Breast Cancer.

Lavender Week runs from the 5th March to 11th March.

Check out the weeks events here.
You can also donate money to support Breast Cancer Care on the page here.