The New Curiosity Shop

You can’t beat a dramatic headline!

The Sun is starting to develop one or two sunspots after a few years of quiet and is producing solar storms to match. There’s one erupting at the moment, and will be making its way towards Earth over the next couple of days. This means we could be in for a display of Northern and Southern Lights – the Auroa Borealis.

If the sky is clear at night, make sure you take a look – we might be in for a good display.

See: Sky and Telescope

Today it was announced that two scientists at Manchester University were awarded the Nobel prize for Physics (see Materials breakthrough wins Nobel). Meanwhile, the Coalition Government are threatening cuts to the very lifeblood of this country, by cutting funding to science research. Such short-sightedness fair takes your breath away. As it says at Science is Vital:

“Investing in research enriches society and helps drive the economy. It led to our preeminent position in the 20th century, and will be vital in meeting the challenges of the 21st century whether they be in energy, medicine, infrastructure, computing, or simply humanity’s primal desire for discovery.”

If you want a simple analogy, if a farmer sells his fields, where does he grow is crops and what does he eat next year?

Of all the threatened cuts, reducing funding to science makes no sense whatsoever.

If you feel the same as me, please go to the Science is Vital website and sign the petition, write to your MP.

Cheers

Noel

It’s Silver Surfers’ Day on 21st May 2010, and our contribution is to open our mini-course, How To Learn Online for free. It will be available from 19th May 2010, and will be supported by a tutor. All you need to do is to complete the form on the page:

Supporting Silver Surfers at the NCS Online College

Where you will find out more about it.

There’s a 10% discount on any of our online courses for anyone who registers for this event.

How to startup your own business.

A cracking course on helping you turn your idea into reality. You will be fully supported by your tutor, who will guide you through the process.

For full details and enrolment details, take a look at: Be Your Own Boss.

Note: This course is approved for ILA Scotland Funding. If you qualify, please let us know and we will process your application.

The iPad. At last: a bit of learning technology kit that won’t get in the way of learning. Finally, a device that will actually enhance learning, and in my particular interest, online learning at home.

Robert Burns

A happy Burns’ Nicht tae ane an’ a.’ We’re looking forward tae oor haggis and champit neeps and tatties and we hope you can join in too. If none of this makes any sense to you, may we recommend a visit to the online Scots dictionary. And if that rouses your interest in things Scottish, why not try a course of Scottish History with the New Curiosity Shop.

If tonight you are having your first Burns’ Supper, there are full instructions here at rabbie-burns.com. Have fun.

It’s a new year and time for some new initiatives. If you are enjoying winter weather as snowy as we are in Scotland, it might be an idea to find an indoor pursuit as we start 2010. What better way to while away the hours while you wait for the snow ploughs than by expanding your mind with an NCS course?

Winter in Dumfries

We hope you all thaw out soon and that 2010 will be a very good year for you.

It is now official that Galloway Forest Park, in Scotland, is one of the darkest places on Earth. The International Dark Sky Association has named the forest in Dumfries and Galloway the first Dark Sky Park outside of the USA. This makes it one of the best places on the planet to really see the night sky, something city-dwellers can only imagine.

M31 can be seen by the naked eye from places like the Galloway Forest Park.

It may also be the case that a dark night sky is good for your health, making the southwest of Scotland a desirable location for all of us, not just the astronomers. Find out more at the BBC website. Dark Sky Parks are explained on the International Dark-Sky Association’s site. You can also study astronomy at the New Curiosity Shop with one of our courses.

It doesn’t seem so long ago that we were reporting on the find of the biggest Anglo-Saxon treasure horde to date. Now a beginner with a metal detector has unearthed £1,000,000 worth of iron age golden torques. Under Scottish law, the four torques, estimated to be worth around £350,000 each, can be claimed by the Crown as archaeological objects. However, the finder is likely to be compensated with their monetary value.

You can read more at the BBC News site and investigate Archaeology further with our course Introducing Archaeology. You can find out more about the people of the Iron Age at BBC Wales.

In the small hours of tomorrow morning, NASA’s LCROSS spacecraft will crash land on the moon. The craft will be deliberately hard-landed in two sections providing data about the composition of the lunar surface. NASA TV will provide live coverage and you can find out more on the Spaceweather site.

images courtesy of NASA