NCS News

Jane Chidwick, wife of keyboard player Noel Chidwick, suggested that a Christmas song would be a good opportunity to do some good in the world and the single is offered for a free download, but with an invitation to pay whatever the listener considers it is worth to UNICEF.

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Universities in England and Wales are warning that a funding shortfall will mean a freeze on extra places. The statement came in response to a letter from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, saying “at this stage” there will be no allocations of extra places until 2011. More from the BBC…
However, there are no plans [...]

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Solar physicists are happily tracking a new group of sunspots called Active Region 1008. This is something of a relief as the Sun has exhibited a long period of inactivity recently.

REMEMBER: never look at the Sun directly and especially never look at it through any kind of optical instrument. For tips on safe solar observing see the Spacepod site or take a course with the NCS Astronomy Department.

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It’s Hallowe’en and it looks like man’s own creations are out to get us. From the man-eating toilet to virus-carrying electronics, the news has been full of horror stories beyond the imaginings of hollywood.
 
 
A man travelling on a French train had a narrow escape this week, when the toilet tried to eat his arm. Rescue [...]

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Two new courses have been introduced to the catalogue of the NCS College of Online Learning. These are “Your Story - Writing A Life” and “The Wonderful World Of Psychology.” 
If you have feel you have life experiences that would interest a wider readership, then Joanna Howard’s course could provide you with the tools to create [...]

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We are delighted to announce the arrival of Drivel Defence from the Plain English Campaign. This is a software tool that can be used online to check your text for difficult English before including it in your web site. We’re looking forward to using it in the NCS College’s resources. It should be helpful to [...]

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Warnings were buzzing around the Internet yesterday that Asteriod 2008 TC3 was on a collision course with the Earth. The 3m asteriod was predicted to hit in Northern Sudan around 3.46am (BST) this morning. 
Meteorologist Jacob Kuiper issued a warning to Air France KLM that some of its aircraft may be in the vicinity when the [...]

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The Guardian is producing a series of booklets this week all about writing. Today’s is about journalism,  and it contains a good few gems worth reading. This will interest anyone thinking of taking up our course, Understanding Journalism.
The Guardian: How to write Journalism

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Trent Batson of Campus Technology has raised the question: “Is College Necessary in a Knowledge-Drenched World?” The point being that, when we have so much technology in our homes that libraries, art galleries and other institutional places have difficulty competing, do people need to attend a college to get an education?
Well, it seems that most [...]

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Cloisters 21, the latest edition of our magazine is out now. It is available as an online electronic magazine at http://issuu.com/cloisters/docs/cloisters21. You can read it there in comfort and style.
 
  
Post your comments on the new magazine here, and let us know if you have any ideas for future articles.

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