Japan Earthquake Damage.

Japan, was rocked (on 11 March 2011) by an Earthquake which triggered a Tsunami and still is struggling with Nuclear reactors meltdown. There is a lot of destruction that needs to be ratified, but some, like human life will never be. Time is the best healer they say, we keep it to that.

The following website will take you to slides of before-and-after scenario after Japan was struck by the disaster.

WATCH  THE  SLIDE  PRESENTATION  HERE*

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

*Roll over the pictures to see the effect.

Peace people.

Related articles

• Japan’s Nuclear Rescuers: “Inevitable Some of Them May Die Within Weeks” (annem040359.wordpress.com)
• Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (hellerbrittani.wordpress.com)
• Dedication: Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Victims of 2011 (mbconsulting.wordpress.com)

 

Almost beat the university’s cricket club !

University of Leicester Cricket Club (ULCC), organises an indoor cricket league every year. This was the first year, Engineering Students entered as a team. I wasn’t too interested in playing indoors, as all my experience has been outdoor. But gave in to my mate’s request. For two semesters (1 year) I missed lectures on Thursday afternoon’s to play our games. And this was after my normal working hours.

We played well and really came together as a team. Reaching second position in the league. We even beat the ULCC in the league matches. It was so damn exciting then !! Today we had our semi-final and we won it with some ease. And finals were against the ULCC.

We won the toss and chose to bat first, I was No.3 batsman and had to take the crease after just 4 balls. I enjoyed my batting today and remained not out at 27 (we have to retire at 25) and the rest of team pushed on good as well. We set a score of 114 to win from 10 overs. Respectable. Whilst bowling, we made some individual mistakes and a bit easy at times. But still took the mighty ULCC to the final over, infact we got a wicket of the final bowl and the scores were draw! 20 overs, 228 runs scored and it’s a draw ! We left the ULCC baffled as to what we produced ! Next up the bowl-out. And after three attempts it was a draw again (0-0). Sudden death, they score 1, we score 0. It was me in the sudden death. We lost 1-0. Disappointed, dejected and a little bit angry with myself. Reminds me of some harsh memories, not be written now, as it still troubles me.

Overall a good performance by the team through the league over the year. We expected to be a middle-table team as it being our first player, but we’ve done ourselves proud by reaching the finals, and silver is still pricely enough ! It’s a proud moment for me to be the Vice-Captain of the team and work alongside a very good captain and an excellent cricket player. I in-fact worked alongside two captains, both of who have been very good. One unfortunately fractured his leg and had to drop out. But, I am proud of this achievement and hope I continue to be part of the cricket team somewhere in the world once I leave university.

Remember this time, we almost beat ULCC in the finals !

UCU Strikes and 26 March !

 

University and College Union members have been on strike at various days in this month so far. University of Leicester has had members strike on 22nd and 24th of March 2011.

The dispute centres around attempts to raise the retirement age, increase contributions for members and bring an end to the final salary element of the scheme. UCU members in Scotland and Wales went on strike on Thursday 17 March and Friday 18 March, respectively, and their colleagues in Northern Ireland are taking strike action today (Monday). There will be UK-wide action on Thursday 24 March.The union said today that it shared students’ frustrations that the employers were refusing to come back to the negotiating table and that the strike action now looked inevitable. The National Union of Students has written to the employers urging them to join UCU for talks and to try and avoid strike action. Read more information here.

Now, I haven’t found the time to go through the justifications and points of debates in detail. And to be honest, I only decided to write this blog after becoming aware of the amount of traffic with regards to the strike on twitter. I have collated some of them, but you can find them on twitter with the hashtag ucustrike.

One of the top tweets for the day was by a certain Aaron Peters (not Porter chap!) and I quote “Inflation 5.5%. Pay rise 0.3%. Pension cuts >20%. Student fees, up 200%. University economics – Priceless.” 

If those numbers baffle you then it’s about time you looked into what’s going on where! As a wise professor once commented – If higher education has to pay for mistakes of the bankers, something has definitely gone wrong in this world !

Related articles

• College staff strike in pension row (mirror.co.uk)
• Lecturers staging UK-wide strike (bbc.co.uk)
• UCU Members Vote For Industrial Action (ucuatbsu.wordpress.com)
• Lecturers plan first UK-wide strike in five years (liberalconspiracy.org)