..... Dame Eliza said that British involvement in Iraq “radicalized, for want of a better word, a whole generation of young people, some British citizens.”She then qualified her remark, adding: “not a whole a generation, a few among a generation, who saw our involvement in Iraq on top of our involve in Afghanistan as being an attack on Islam.” Asked what specific proof there was of a direct correlation between the Iraq invasion and home grown Muslim terrorism she said: “I think we can produce evidence because of the numerical evidence of the number of plots, the number of leads, the number of people identified and the correlation of that to Iraq and the statements of people as to why they were involved. The discussions between them as to what they were doing. What Iraq did was to produce a fresh impetus of people prepared to engage in terrorism.” ...

Source: TimesOnline of July 20, 2010 (To read the full text, you'll have to subscribe to 'The Times' (It's worthwhile!)

THE JULY SITE TIPS

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list. Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.

Global Warming - Facts & Our Future: Is the climate warming? Are we the cause? These are the questions at the heart of the public's debate about global warming. More more here.

MORE LINKS



At long last...






















Easy GCSEs ‘a ploy to please parents eager for A grades’

Exam boards are keeping GCSEs at a “meaninglessly easy” level to please middle-class parents and protect their multimillion-pound textbook industry, according to a leading academic. ....
MPs had admitted that they had no interest in making GCSEs tougher, he said, because they did not want to upset middle-class parents who now expected their children to achieve strings of A grades. Schools were reluctant to jeopardise their league table positions and exam boards were afraid of damaging business by making their papers harder than those of their competitors. .... The exams regulator, Ofqual, has twice ordered awarding bodies to toughen their science GCSEs, saying the exams had too many short, simple questions that could be answered using common sense. New versions were recently returned to them for rewriting after being deemed unsatisfactory.
Source: TimesOnline of July 21, 2010 (To read the full text, you'll have to subscribe to 'The Times'.