The New Curiosity Shop

The Portable Antiquities Scheme has just released its Treasure Annual Report at a special event in the British Museum. The scheme coordinates a network of Finds Liaison Officers who take reports from people who find ancient artifacts on their land or while out walking or metal detecting and, this year, they have 1,257 archaeological finds to report, including a  golden torc  from the Iron Age, a single hoard of over 3,600 Roman coins and an Anglo Saxon roundel depicting the Hand of God.

There is more about the event on the 24 Hour Museum site, and full details of the report from the Portable Antiquities Scheme itself.

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 our students, particularly those who have English as a second language. 

So how well does it perform? I loaded the first paragraph from this post into it and scored well for clarity. The only change recommended was that the second last sentence should be rewritten as “We’re looking send to using it in the NCS College’s resources.” Oh, well, back to the drawing board, guys. For now I’d recommend not ticking the box marked “possible alternative words (from PEC A to Z).” It does very well in identifying good sentences, though.

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 asteriod came down. The asteroid was expected to burn up safely forming a fireball as bright as the full moon. Sure enough, a KLM flight passing the impact area at a distance of 750 nautical miles reported a bright flash just before the expected impact time. The satellite image shows the plane (+) and the impact site (O).

More from Spaceweather.com

Alas alack we don’t have any music related courses here at the NCS College, so I take great pleasure in directing you to Soundjunction. This is an action packed site for listening to, exploring, discovering and creating music. You can find out how to ply the udu – you can also discover how to play the saxaphone, and find out how a composer works. It’s all here.

This is one of those rare websites in front of which you can settle down with a mug of coffee and thoroughly enjoy wandering around.

Now, does anyone fancy developing a music course for the NCS?

George Orwell (pic from Wikipedia)

George Orwell’s diaries are to be re-produced as a blog to mark their 70th anniversary. From the 9th August you will be able to follow, in displaced real time, his thoughts on Europe descending into War, plus more mundane activities such as  how many eggs his chickens laid.

Visit: George Orwell’s diaries.

On Friday, August 1st, the Moon will pass directly in front of the Sun producing a total solar eclipse.  The narrow path of totality stretches from arctic Canada through Greenland, Siberia, and Mongolia, and comes to an end in China, where millions of people will witness the event.  Even more people will see the partial eclipse, visible from almost all of Europe, the Middle East, India, Asia and a corner of North America.  The action begins at approximately 09:20 UT (10:20 am BST) when the Moon’s shadow first hits Earth in northern Canada and begins its rapid sweep toward China.

Visit NASA’s Spaceweather site for photos, webcasts, timetables and full coverage of the eclipse.

Can’t be bothered lifting that twenty kilo bestseller while basking in the sunshine? Why not listen to a good book instead? We’ve found a site which offers educational listening, too. This appeals to our lazier sides and makes us feel that the time lying in the sun is well spent, actually learning something. Check out LearnOutLoud.com and see if you like the idea too.

We like A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson – one of the best popular science books of recent years. Or, if you prefer classic literature, what about A Tale Of Two Cities by Dickens or London’s South Sea Tales, especially good if you’re holidaying in the south seas?

The fundamental science of quantum mechanics casts doubt on whether the world is real or just the way we see it. Scientists at the Institut für Quantenoptik und Quanteninformation (IQOQI) in Vienna have been trying to test whether this prediction of the theory is actually true, or just a consequence of the quantum model. Their answers to the question may be disturbing to many. So much so, that they are advertising for a philosopher to come and work with them to interpret the implications of their results. You can read more in Seed Magazine.

“An egg is always an adventure.”

If I’m stumped for a word, a meaning,  am looking for a quote, or I just want some good advice on writing, one of the first places I visit on the web is AskOxford. Not only can you find definitions but there is a source of quotes, a thesaurus if you are struggling to find just the right word, and a list of new words that have appeared recently.

Go visit: www.askoxford.com

Here’s your NCS Nano-task:

Visit this site and

1: Find out who is the author of the quote at the top of this item

2: Which part of the human anatomy is the “bahookie”

Answers as a comment here!