Are you that important
that you need to be in communication with your following 24/7, are you expecting
that all important phone call, might the prime minister need your advice?
Welcome to my and page where I post pages on a range of topics that I feel need to be made common knowledge.
Scroll down or click links below to find comments on the following topics.
Mobile Phones, Voyeuristic TV shows, Microsofts X Box, Father's Rights, Pop-ups, Diallers and Viruses, New Tax Credits
Mobile phones - What's it all about?
Having to have the latest, smallest, shiniest, wapiest, fliptopiest mobile phone?
You know the one that has the cool ring tones that you can download from the
web. The one that frequently rings in my class!!!!! The one with the pathetic
ring tones that indicates to all and sundry that you are a very sad individual
if you actually think it matters what it sounds like. IT'S JUST A TOOL, a communications
device! I can't believe that you're so shallow as to regard a person's status
by the make of their mobile phone.
Are you that important
that you need to be in communication with your following 24/7, are you expecting
that all important phone call, might the prime minister need your advice?
Or are you that sad and lonely that you need someone to text or talk to 24/7
NO - ok so why then do your mobiles need to be on in my class, why are they ringing, why are you texting your mates during my lesson, why do your phones need to be out on the table in front of you?
I suppose my biggest gripe with mobiles is the health risks. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that the ELF radiation from mobiles can cause childhood leukaemia and brain cancer. Unchecked this could mean that virtually an entire generation develops this life threatening problem, extreme maybe but even moderate forecasts predict an alarming rise in cancer amongst the younger age groups.
Type "Mobile Phones + Health Risks" into any search engine and the amount of articles is staggering. Read the statistics I firmly believe that those of you that walk around with your mobile glued to your ear are increasing your risk of developing cancer of the brain. Those of you secretly texting under the table during my lessons, not only are you risking my wrath but where's the cancer going to strike when your mobile spend the lesson resting in your groin?
Check out these sites,
| http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/publicfeature/aug00/prad.html http://www.wavelengthonline.com/ http://www.doh.gov.uk/mobile.htm (the governments stance) http://pages.britishlibrary.net/orange/bioeffectnewsoct00.htm (scary stuff) http://www.junkscience.com/news/ausphone.htm (very, very scary stuff) |
 |
Ok so I know that many common electrical devices also produce strong ELF emissions: hair dryers, televisions, computers, radios, florescent light fixtures and electrical heaters. However they don't spend the day glued to your ear cms from your brain do they? Did you know that Sweden's National Energy Administration mandates that new schools, day-care centres and play groups should not be located in areas where "background" magnetic fields are above 200 nanotesla. Clearly they are recommending that children are not exposed to more than 200 nanotesla for extended periods of time.
I have an ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) monitoring device and have in the past measured the radiation emanating from students mobile phones bought into class. Typically we found that for most makes of mobile the ELF radiation measured at 10 cms from the hand set during a call was in excess of 2400 nanotesla. For the radiation to fall to an `acceptable level` the phone would have to be almost a meter from your head whilst making a call! For these students the results were an eye opener. See me if you want your mobile's ELF radiation output measured.
In essence for your own sake use your phone less, give your body a break and have the common decency to turn your phones off during lesson time, and let's have radiation free zones, at least for the 4½ hrs per week that you're in my classroom!!
Oh and yes I do own one, (a new Sony cmd-Z7).
 |
Big brother 1,2,3, Celebrity Survivor, Pop Stars. - Reality TV. What the crack with this, Isn't your life eventful enough? Why do you have a need to watch others living their lives? Can't you see that by the very presence of the cameras filming these people 24/7 that they act unnaturally? It's not a sociological experiment its puerile TV. Get out, get a life of your own. |
|
My son bought an X box recently (May 2002) and with it came a game `Halo`. Now iv'e always advacated that your life can be as exciting as you want it to be without resorting to living within a game. That i`m sure you would find it as exciting to be climbing up a rock face or to be decending into a cave system for real as it would be to play as a computer character doing the same things. However when my son asked me if I wanted to test out his new game in mulitplayer mode I reluctantly said that I would play for ½ hr (I had planed to go out into the garden but it had just started to rain). 7½ hrs later, still playing I realised that I was hooked. Chalk up another one for Bill Gates. Additional (June 2002) Finished `Halo` - Brilliant! Moved onto `Blood Wake` Additional (July 2002) HELP! I cannot get past Act 2 mission 8 Shakedown. It says infiltrate through the enemy delta avoiding the enemy if possible. I keep being turned into crab bait. Anybody got any hints / tips please? Thanks Dave for pointing me in the direction of gamespot.com, a cheats site - that one less fustration I have to live with. Additional (August 2002) Got bored with 'Blood Wake' moved on to 'Hunter` W h a a a a - H a a y - what a superb, magnificent, terrific, excellent, groovy and cool game. |
It would seem that equality doesn't extend to fathers bringing up their children.
I've always been a child-orientated person, some would say that it's because I haven't grown up myself. Maybe so but I have always played a very active part in rearing my children. My son was 18 months old when his mother and I parted, every weekend (that's every weekend!) and the majority of the school holidays I would drive from wherever I was currently working (Edinburgh, Manchester, London, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, York) and pick him up. I would spend the whole weekend from Friday night to Sunday at 6 pm with my son. I even kept a house locally just to live in at weekends so I could continue to see my son. I only missed spending one weekend in 6 ½ years with my son. When he was 9 years old he came to live with me. That's when my problems started ---- No not because I now had my son full time but because the various government departments that one has to deal with couldn't cope with a single dad bringing up his son. I didn't fit into any of the boxes on their forms. This caused untold problems for me I had to appeal to tribunals in order to get the local council to recognise me as something other than `the absent father` despite the fact that I wasn't absent and was the primary carer for my son. My son is now 18+ and makes his own way in the world.
They say that those that don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. I'm living proof of that. Some years later I met someone, a relationship formed and my daughter was born. When she was 2 years old her mother and I parted. When we parted I had a Parental Responsibility Agreement that had been ratified by court and a written agreement of full joint responsibility between us stating that we would each play an equal part in our daughters upbringing. To this end our daughter would spend each alternate week with each parent. Between us this has worked well for many years. However again the local council couldn't cope with this, one child, two parents, spending a week alternately with each -- unheard of. There is no provision for that, no allowance could be made for the father, and as all allowances have historically gone to the mother they continued to do so. The CSA couldn't cope with the situation either and insisted on categorising me as `the absent father` when my daughter lived with me alternate weeks that's 50% of the time. Again several appeals later, 2 years in and out of court, 5 court welfare recommendations all in my favour, several thousands of pounds and I obtained a full joint residency order.
You would think that that was enough wouldn't you? That I could
now by recognised by all as being a father that was taking full responsibility
for bringing up their child. Well for most government and council departments
it was. However there are still two departments that refuse to recognise the
circumstances, Child Benefit who despite the above state that current guidelines
as written still categorise me as an absent parent and the CSA. I can only assume
that the CSA see me as an easy target because I refuse to shirk my responsibilities
as a father, do they find it too difficult to chase those truly absent fathers?
Maybe they have a monthly target and when they fall short they hassle me? 
|
CSA
|
Me |
I'm not an absent father ---- I'm a present single daddy!!
|
When will the governments and councils get their act together and recognise that there is no longer a `normal family unit` (2 adults, 2.3 kids). It's becoming the norm for children to be bought up by a single parent and more and more fathers are becoming the primary carer. They would do well to remember that.
|
 |
| There is a growing number of insidious websites
that are currently taking advantages of facilities provided by your browser
if you have IE 5.5 or before. These websites are re-directing you to their
pages on the basis of your browser language settings, your location or just
on a purely random basis. They do this by having a page hosted by the same
legitimate site that you are attempting to view, on their page they have
scripts running that redirect a number of visitors to other sites.
At best these scripts can be an annoyance forcing you to close pop-ups attempting again to reach the intended site. At the worst these scripts can download to your browser and take control removing navigation bars so you can't simply click the back button or close down the screen. They can add unwanted icons to toolbars and desktops, they can even change your browser's home page without your confirmation. So, having said that, what can you do to protect yourself? Dealing With Pop-Ups: 1 - You can download a "pop up killer". But beware some shareware versions can't distinguish between pop-up intrusions and called for pop-ups. This can therefore block a significant amount of required information from loading from a legitimate site should they use pop-up windows as a form of navigation. You could check out the pop-up killers at CNET's download site. 2 - You can turn JavaScript off in your browser, if you have IE 5.5 and below. I can't find a way to do this in IE 6 (If you know one, please tell me). 3 - Learn certain keyboard short-cuts to control your browser (these things are handy to know anyway). The Escape key (Esc, usually on the very top left of your keyboard) cancels out a dialog box even where there is no "No" or "Cancel" option. Pressing the "Alt" and "F4" key at the same time closes the active window. If you get caught in a console chain, pressing this as each new window pops up will close the window. You can press it as soon as the window pops, you do not have to wait for it to load fully. Dealing With Auto-Downloading and Auto-Dialling Diallers: These programs run by using ActiveX scripting that comes within your browser in a bad way. Some of them exploit old security holes in the browser (IE 5.5 and below). If you still have version 5.5 and below of this browser, then I strongly advise you to visit http://windowsupdate.com/ and update it. On occasion you may get hit with dialog boxes in German or "do you want to save this file" prompt boxes. To exit them, use "esc and alt & F4" as described above. If you don't get any prompt boxes at all and they download automatically to your PC then you really need to update your browser because I've a feeling that we are going to be inundated with them before too long. You can also, stop these things by changing your Security Settings in your browser's Internet Options. This then tells you an ActiveX script is about to run and gives you a prompt box allowing you to say "yes" or "no" to running it. Unfortunately, doing this also stops certain other handy and useful things like cookies and Shockwave Flash from running and clicking yes or no can get a bit annoying after a while.
If at any time you want to return to the Default Settings, go through the same process, but click the Default Level button instead of the Custom level one. If these diallers auto-download, then auto-install and auto-run, you really need to update your browser. No program or script on a web page should be able to do this to you. To prevent them auto-dialling out, you can install a firewall, which is a program that sits on your computer and controls which programs are allowed to access the Internet. This will stop you having to leap up and pull your modem cable out of the wall! ZoneAlarm is pretty good and you can get it from here: http://www.zonealarm.com/ The free version works ok but can be a little annoying at times. Viruses: These are old scripts and Trojan horses which exploit holes in security holes in old browsers (IE 5.5 and below) and change homepages etc. Can you spot a theme here? Or Buy a good anti-virus program from Norton: http://www.norton.com/ McAfee: http://www.mcafee.com/ In essence if you're hit then you need to Update!! Pop-ups, Auto Diallers and Viruses. DON'T LET THEM GET CONTROL!! Happy Surfing |
|
| New Tax Credits |
|
A little history. For several years my daughter has had joint residency spending a week alternately between both her parents. This has worked well in most aspects, two people sharing the upbringing of child. Both parents communicate, agreeing decisions regarding education, out of school activities, holidays, and aspects of health everything necessary to raise a child in a loving environment that as close to normal as circumstances will allow. You would think that with a joint residency order, a parental responsibility order and many years of essentially trouble free joint upbringing of our daughter both parents should be regarded as being equal in the eyes of the government and local authority. Unfortunately this is not so. Where parents of a child do not live together and yet share responsibility for that child government and local authority are unable (or unwilling) to share jointly any recognition that both parents are responsible for the child. Current legislation has to label one of the parents as being `absent` despite the fact that they are NOT. The absent parent is often categorised as being the parent who is not in receipt of Child Benefit. As Child Benefit cannot be split between two parents it would seem neither can the parental recognition. Recognition as a responsible father determined to play as active a role as circumstances will allow has been an issue with me for years. I have fought battle after battle with government and local authorities for this recognition. I have appealed against authority categorisation, been to tribunals, spent many hours in court, spent several thousand pounds all to be recognised as something other than an `absent parent`, wining some, losing some and agreeing to disagree in other instances. The government now plans to reform the Child Benefit and Children's Tax Allowances. You would think in these enlightened times that equality is an issue in which the government should be setting an example? Not so! These new tax credits `Child Tax Credit` and `Working Tax credit` can only be given to a single person. Again the precedent for these new tax credits being the parent in receipt of Child Benefit. I cannot stand by whilst the rights of an increasingly significant number of single parents are ignored and eroded. In essence it looks like I may have yet another clash looming on the horizon. With this in mind I have sought support where it may be found. My first contact being with Families Need Fathers, a group formed to support single parents with issues such as these. I intend to post all relevant communication here so interested parties can follow the progress of this issue. My first E-mail to Families Need Fathers. ----- Original Message
----- Dear FNF Are your members experiencing problems relative to this new Working Tax Credit? My situation as a working
single father is that I have full joint residency of my The Inland Revenue helpline
has told us that despite our joint residency and our Regards Clive Morley Several days later I received the reply below ----- Original Message
----- Dear Clive, Your query about WFTC has been forwarded to me by the office. In answer to your question,
yes some of our members have had problems with this tax Ministers are aware
of the problem - FNF has raised it with them before. Apparently I would urge you to
write to Baroness Hollis of Heigham at the Dept. for Work and This would be helpful
to us in order to build up a record of our members who are Please do let me know how you get on Best wishes, Following the advice of the FNF the following was sent via letter
to the Baroness Hollis of Heigham at the House of Lords. Also copied to
my MP -Barry Sheerman, FNF and Child Poverty Action Group. Dear Lady Hollis of Heigham It would seem that equality does not extend to fathers playing an active role in bringing up their children. I feel constrained to write and express my concern governing the rules regarding the introduction of the Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit. I am a single working father, my daughter spends each alternate week resident with me, I have a full joint residency order, a parental responsibility order and currently claim 50% of the Children's tax credit. My ex-partner receives the Child Benefit for our daughter and also claims 50% of the Children's Tax credit. Over the previous five years I have fought battle after battle with Council and Government departments in order to be recognised as something other than an absent parent. As Child Benefit cannot be split between two I have always been categorised as an absent parent despite the fact that I take as full a responsibility for raising my daughter, as circumstances will allow. In actuality my daughter spends significantly more time with me, as a teacher my holidays coincide with my daughters. The system as it currently stands clearly discriminates against single fathers, as you are no doubt aware that so many other aspects are dependent on who is receiving the Child Benefit. This has created many problems for me as many local authority and governments departments refuse to recognise my daughter as a dependant because I am not in receipt of Child Benefit. Despite much communication with many Civic departments I have had to reluctantly accept the situation being labelled as a second class `absent parent`. My only slight recognition being 50% of the Children's Tax Credit, it would now seem that this recognition is to be taken away. Upon receiving the forms for the Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit I rang the Inland Revenue helpline and explained my circumstances it was at this point I was told that there was no provision for allowing these tax credits to be shared. The only advice proffered was that we should both make a claim and they will decide who get the tax credits, who gets nothing and who is labelled as the absent parent. It was clearly intimated by the helpline that I would be wasting my time making any claim, as the tax credit would most likely be given to the person currently claiming Child Benefit. In principle my ex-partner is fully in agreement with the sharing of these tax allowances however she will not disadvantage herself financially by losing any available income. I find it astonishing that in these times when equality is promoted in all things that the system does not allow for joint residency. Whilst I accept that my circumstances may be in the minority I feel that the rules governing the Tax Credit discriminate against those responsible fathers wanting to be recognised as such. In conclusion I would urge you to remember that any man can be a father but not any man can or wants to be a daddy. Equality in recognition is all I ask for. I look forward to your reply. Yours Sincerely
· Posted letter to Rt. Hon. the Baroness Lady Hollis of Heigham
on 28/10/02. |
| On the 11th November revieved the following from my MP Barry Sheerman. |
 |
| On the 17th December 2002 I received the following which had been forwarded by Barry Sheerman. |
 |
 |
| A typical response? It would seem that the common man is not worthy of a direct reply from the HM Treasury despite the fact that it is staffed and its activities are directed by the MPs that you and I voted into office! Putting pen to paper (Ok fingers on the keyboard) I gave the following response: |
| Barry Sheerman Esq MP House of Commons LONDON SW1A 0AA 18th December 2002 Dear Mr. Sheerman Thank you for forwarding the correspondence received from the Treasury. Having read the enclosed letter I am disappointed that my concerns have not been answered. It is also discouraging to consider that I was not worthy of a direct reply to my letter from either the Baroness Hollis or the Treasury department. I considered that I had made it clear in my letter that there is NO person who is the main carer. That it is merely the fact my ex-partner was claiming Child Benefit when we parted that the present system categorises her as the `Main Carer` and myself as the `Absent Parent`. My only recognition currently given is that I receive half of the Child Tax Credit despite having a Parental Responsibility Agreement and Full Joint Responsibility order ratified by court. It would seem incredible that in these days of equal rights that a system should discriminate between parents who take equal responsibility for raising a child. It is even more incredible that a review of this unfair system should not consider this discrimination and even more so that it should seek to widen further this inequality in recognition. As detailed within the enclosed letter I can appreciate the need to focus the tax credits where they are needed most however I believe the basis for the categorisation of main carer is fundamentally flawed. There is no recognition of the fact that in certain instances there is NO main carer and that both parents take equal responsibility for bringing up the children. It is clear from material provided by the charity Family's Need Fathers and also my own personal experience that many parents who have parted share responsibility equally for raising a child. I object most strongly to being labelled as an `Absent Parent` when I am clearly taking responsibility for raising my child. In actuality I would suggest that most fathers in my position with equal responsibility play a greater role in bringing up their children that most fathers would where both parents live together. Whilst I can appreciate that we are in a minority I believe that we are an increasingly significant minority and to ignore us is alienating a substantial fraction of the voting and earning public. I shall certainly not consider voting for a party that is un-enlightened or unwilling to change this obviously discriminatory system. I should appreciate your assistance in bringing the above to the notice of those concerned. Yours Sincerely
|
|
I await further correspondence. |
