Snow joke ...

While large areas of the UK have been deluged with snow, here in Edinburgh we have barely experienced enough to create a medium sized snowball.  Our temperatures however have hovered around the zero Celsius mark for a while, so it's been "wrap up warm" time since just before Christmas and a perfect excuse to inhabit the local cinemas as much as possible.

Legionnaires outbreak hits Edinburgh

Please spare a thought for us here in South West Edinburgh, Scotland, where to date more that 60 people have been identified with symptoms of Legionnaires disease.

Edinburgh resident Bert Air (56) died on Tuesday 5 June 2012, although it has been reported that he had underlying health issues.

Remembering Alan Turing

It was on 7th June 1954 that Alan Turing, mathematian, code-breaker, and visionary died.  A life ended too soon, with much still to give to the scientific world.  Times have changed, he is now fondly and respectfully remembered on this the centary year of his birth. 


For more information on Alan Turing and events being held as part of the centary celebration visit this site  http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/

T100 - the Alan Turing centenary in Edinburgh

Image a world without computers – no mobile phones, no swipe cards, no ATMs.

The heartbeat of a premature baby cannot be accurately monitored; air travel is for the privileged few since all planes must be directed manually from the ground; reporting of wars in far off countries could be prevented by simply cutting a telephone wire.

Are bloggers a useful resource or a dangerous distraction for journalists?

Journalists rely on people who are “on the ground” and familiar with the locale to add detail and at times break stories.  Bloggers could be regarded as a new addition to the notion of stringers with their ability to communicate quickly around the world. 

However as can be seen with the case of Tom McMaster, also known as Amina Abdullah, also known as the “Syrian lesbian blogger” (Ardley) it is not always apparent that bloggers are who they purport to be and this can adversely affect all journalists where this type of deception could, “undermine the credibility of the real Syrian bloggers and activists” who are “doing everything possible to keep informing their fellow citizens and the rest of the world.” (Reporters Without Borders, A)

Should photojournalists intervene, or observe in life threatening situations?

In 1991 South African freelance photographer Gregory Marinovich was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography. (O’Brien p 69)  The set of photographs submitted covered an attack on Lindsaye Tshabala, a man believed to be a Zulu Inkatha supporter (McDougall) at a workers hostel in the Thokoza township near Johannesburg.(Catsam)  Marinovich observed the fatal attack as part of the coverage of the under-reported “Hostel Wars” which concerned mainly black on black violence in power vacuum which developed in South Africa on the run up to the country’s first democratic elections.(Catsam)   He was faced with the ethical dilemma, “should he intervene or observe?”.

Democracy in Action?

We live in interesting times.  Regime change in Egypt, UN Resolution 1973 authorising a no fly zone over Libya and ecological disaster of biblical proportions in Japan. 

Meanwhile in London on Saturday 26 March 2011 approximately 250,000 people [source BBC Newsnight, http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/paulmason/2011/03/a_snapshot_of_the_26_march_dem.html] took to the streets to demonstrate against the proposed cuts in budgets and services to some of the most vulnerable sections of British society, the biggest public demonstration in the city since 2003 against the Iraq War.