Returning Renault Bears to a worthwhile life of daytime telly, eating jammy toast and surfing the internet.
Davidd
- Name:
- Davidd aka. Bearkeeper Davidd
- Location:
- Birkenhead
- Occupation:
- Bearkeeper
- Hobbies:
- Looking after bears
- Things I Like:
- Bears
- Things I Hate:
- Rudeness
- Profile:
- I used to have a life, I used to have time to have hobbies and go out but now my days are filled looking after my little furry friends.
- Random:
- hmmm
- Registered Since:
- 2009-07-04 14:37:17
Posts by Davidd
The Blitz 70th Anniversary
Wed 8th Sep 2010
To protect them from the worst of the bombing raids, 3.5m children were evacuated from cities around Britain.
Seventy years ago today, Britain woke up following the first night of the Blitz. Hitler’s Germany tried to bomb Britain into submission by the sustained bombing of large industrial towns and cities across England. Hitler’s aim was not only to destroy British industry but also to destroy the morale of the people.
Liverpool and Birkenhead were hit particularly hard because of the large industries and ship building in the area.
The first intentional air raids took place on the 7th September 1940 with nearly 1,000 bombers and fighter escorts attacking the Port of London. Further attacks took place that night but many of the bombs missed their intended docklands targets and fell on neighbouring residential areas, killing many.
The Blitz continued across Britain until 10th May 1941 including a sustained day and night air raid on London that last 76 consecutive nights. Its intention of demoralising the British into surrender was never achieved and the Blitz did little to facilitate the potential German invasion of Britain. Hitler refocused his forces to the east, attacking Russia.
Although they never again managed to bomb Britain on such a large scale, there were smaller attacks throughout the war. The estimated civilian death toll was well over 50,000 just from the bombing.
Facebook Causes Poor Exam Results
Tue 7th Sep 2010
Pupils who revise for exams while using Facebook and other social networking sites perform up to 20% worse in exams, so the latest research claims. The American research, which looked at people aged between 19-54, showed that rather than acting as light entertainment to help keep the attention it actually acted as a distraction with friends constantly popping up to chat online.
The research said that people have Facebook or other social networking sites running in the background along with emails and an instant messaging client while carrying out research and exam preparation.
Professor Paul Kirschner said, “Our study and other previous work suggests that while people may think constant task-switching allows them to get more done in less time, the reality is it extends the amount of time needed to carry out tasks and leads to more mistakes.”
In addition, those who did not use the site said they devoted more time to studying outside the classroom. This is despite the fact three quarters of Facebook users said they did not think that spending time on the site affected their academic performance. The other quarter admitted Facebook did stop them working and some even said they put off work because of Facebook.
Kirschner added, “We should resist the fashionable views of educational gurus that children can multi-task, and that we should adapt our education systems accordingly to keep up with the times.”
This study will compound fears over the superficial approach that experts say is encouraged by an increasingly distracted online world that is constantly distracted by multi-tasking. In the influential book The Shallows, Nicholas Carr argues the internet has given rise to “cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking and superficial learning”.
Most Random Post Ever
Mon 6th Sep 2010
Last week we promised we would include our Friends more on the Blog. We said if any Friends had something that they would like posting then we would post it as long as we thought others would find it interesting. Sadie came up with what must be the most random thing we have ever consider posting but we have to confess that once she explained what it was we did all laugh.
You see, Sadie said that she has been following our Bears for so long now that when she looked down at her feet today, she noticed she was slowly turning into a Polar Bear…
Sadie and her Polar Bear feet
Musical Sundays #83
Sun 5th Sep 2010
Because Sundays are always boring, we decided, a while back, to turn them into Musical Fun Days. Each Sunday we will post a music video from an artist or genre that we think will be enjoyable to our subscribers. This weekend…
…we have been overruled by everyone who has been asking us to feature Eminem. So I guess we have nothing much to say except… here is Eminem for you as requested.
Eminem Ft Rihanna – Love The Way You Lie
Do not forget, if you have any music videos you would like us to feature on a future Sunday then drop us a line. We are always happy to listen to requests from others, we cannot promise to feature any but we will try our best to find the videos if we think others will enjoy.
Digital Camera Photographer of the Year
Sat 4th Sep 2010
An entry in the Digital Photographer of the Year competition
Above is just one entry in the Digital Camera Photographer of the Year competition. It features a boy riding his bike on New Brighton beach. The tide is out and the scene looks very tranquil – a great picture. The picture has been entered into the Britain Inspired category and is one of our favourites.
The nice thing about this competition is that it is won by normal people, not professional photographers. Furthermore, the competition is open to anyone who fancies entering one of his or her photographs. Despite that, it is one of the world’s biggest photography competitions, last year it attracted 100,000 entries all chasing the £10,000 grand prize.
If anyone fancies entering a photograph of their own, or if you would just like to view some of the entries, head over to the Photoradar website.
Good luck if you enter!
Did God Create The Universe?
Fri 3rd Sep 2010
No, he did not, says Professor Stephen Hawking.
A few years ago, Professor Stephen Hawking published his book A Brief History of Time and had all The Bears transfixed. In the book, he described how everything in space, time and the universe worked. The book was subtitled From the Big Bang to Black Holes and that is exactly what it covered. It started by explaining how the whole universe as we know it, started from a huge explosion millions of years ago. There is nothing special about that, there are many books attempting the same thing, but Stephen Hawking wrote his not for scientists and physicists but for normal people and Bears to understand.
The book suggested that the start of the universe needed something to start the whole process – someone to light the touch-paper to ignite the big bang. This pleased the church because it left room for the thought that God was that divine being who started the world.
Now, twelve years later, Mr Hawking says the universe was created by itself and not God. In his new book, The Grand Design, he insists that there is no reason to attribute the beginning of everything to a supreme being. He writes, “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist… because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. It is not necessary to invoke God.”
Oh yes he did, says Lewis Ayres, Professor of Theology at Durham University.
Professor Ayres says that most scientists believe that God creates what they cannot understand. As soon as they find laws to explain things, then that does away with the need of a God.
Stephen Hawking is a modern atheist. He thinks that suddenly science comes along and provides us with the answers and explanations and that in itself proves there is no God. What smart Christians do is to believe in the beauty, structure and order of the world. We believe that God sustains all of that.
Professor Hawking’s book is out later this month, so I bet this is not the last we hear of this argument.
Long Live The Stig
Thu 2nd Sep 2010
The Stig
The Bears love watching Top Gear, the motoring programme that pokes fun at just about every aspect of sensible driving. It is a bit of fun on a Sunday evening when stars come and race in rubbish cars and the presenters get to play with very expensive cars that most people can only dream of one day driving. Then the highlight of the show is to let The Stig loose on the best cars and see how fast he can get them around their racetrack.
The Stig of course is a tame racing driver presumably captured by the show to race their cars to the limit. To push the cars as far as they will go and see how they react. The true identity of The Stig is kept secret and many attempts have been made to unmask him so we can all know the ugly truth.
We have ignored such rumours and speculation by the press and just enjoyed the programme for what it is: a bit of fun! We do not wish The Stig to be revealed because as soon as you realise who he is then he stops having the mythical element that makes the whole “Stig” thing work.
The guessing game with the press has continued for seven years. There have been stories that he was really Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and even the BBC themselves joined in the joke by unveiling Michael Schumacher as The Stig.
Luckily, the fun has continued without him being unmasked.
Now that fun is over. Greed has reared its ugly head and the man who has played The Stig for the last seven years wants to publish a book about his time on the programme. The BBC claimed that The Stig had signed a confidentiality clause and tried to block publication of the book. In a statement they said, “We brought this action as we believe it is vital to protect the character of The Stig.”
The BBC lost their court action yesterday and now the man’s book will be published in September. The Bears will not be buying it and we feel it is just a sad case of greed winning over a promise made by him not to reveal his identity.
We hope the book does not sell a single copy and we would like to wish the new Stig all the best for the next series. No doubt, Jeremy Clarkson and the boys will have some fun at the expense of the old Stig.
The old Stig is dead long live the new Stig!
