Following on from the success of Sarah Jones’s blog, Worfolk 18 is pleased to announce the launch of Jenny’s photo blog. New updates every month!
Yesterday, it was announced that science fiction author Ray Bradbury, best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, had died. While it is far from a tragedy, at the respectable age of 91, he will be deeply missed.
If remembrance, here is Rachel Bloom singing about her love for Ray.
I’m pleased to announce the re-launch of Know Leeds, your guide to city centre living. The site has been going for six years now and was in much need of a refresh. It now has a stronger focus on restaurant reviews, but still has listings as well as local news and more to come.
Introducing Village Chief, a fun strategy game that allows you to come the Chief of a village and grow it into a flourishing community.
We’re very pleased to announce this first beta version. You start the game with some villages, gold and buildings to get you started. You can then expand your village by buying more houses, farms and even a bank. As you grow, your villagers will procreate and pay you taxes too – money you can use to expand your village!
While I’m busy with my new venture, I’m also working on a project to add a further arm to the prolific Worfolk Online empire, in the form of Worfolk Games. It’s going to be publishing it’s first game in the next few months with a focus on the social gaming (Facebook) arena. Stayed tuned.
The BBC recently published a report on the Dutch parliament voting on a proposal to ban ritually slaughtered meat – and it’s expected to pass.
I found the BBC news report rather biased. For example, when reporting on a Halal butcher, she said that if the law came into force he would “be forced to leave.” This is entirely misleading, it sounds like they are about to get kicked out of the country or something, not just having to sell meat slaughtered differently – which he could do. Or get another job. Or import his meat from outside The Netherlands. Or use pre-stunned Halal meat, like they have in New Zealand.
Not to mention that the debate genuinely is about animal welfare. There is a reason we have independent advisory boards, and the Farm Animal Welfare Council has spoken on the issue.
Of course, ultimately they lose the argument thanks to a good bit of Godwin’s Law. Much like Chanoch Kesselman’s offensive video broadcast on Channel 4, the rabbi in the news piece equated the banning of Kosher meat to Holocaust. I fail to see how one appalling act of slaughter justifies him committing another, but it doesn’t matter, he resorted to Godwin’s Law and therefore loses the argument by default.
Last year we launched and ran the Humanist Action Group‘s Holiday Food Drive.
Thanks to all your generous donations we were able to provide food parcels for three local homeless shelters. We managed a total of 24 boxes packed full of a variety of different kind of food either directly donated or bought with donations. It was a good start, but we think that this year we can do a lot better!
As with last year, we need your help in three ways. First of all, we need food. That is the main part of a food drive, so any food you can donate is great. Anything which will last for a few months or more is ideal. Secondly, we need time. We need people to help us collect everything together and package it up. Finally, any money donated will be used to buy more food in bulk from wholesalers to help us fill even more boxes.
If you think you can spare some time to help those less fortune this holiday season, then please do get in contact with us. You can also sign up on Facebook, or if you want to donate, you can do so via our page on Virgin Money Giving.
Together, we can make this a truly special holiday season. Which, to me, is what the holiday season is really all about.
Chris
I’m sure that most of you have, by now, heard the news with Sir Jimmy Savile has passed away. Not just a larger than life character, Jimmy was also a true inspiration in his tireless devotion to the charities he supported. Not to mention that his death now leaves us with Chris Moyles and Scary Spice as the biggest names to come out of Leeds.
Still, at least we can remember him by supporting the campaign to name the Leeds Arena the Jimmy Savile Arena. That will show Scarborough and their silly statue.
Yesterday the technology industry was saddened by the passing of Apple founder and chairman, Steve Jobs.
Steve was a visionary who literally changed the world for the better by bringing new and innovative technology to the public in a way which was always intuitive and more importantly, magical. Every time I pick up my iPad, I still feel like I’m living in Star Trek.
Tributes have poured in from politicians, to business leaders, to the many, any Apple fans across the world. In a touching note Bill Gates described working with him as “an insanely great honor.”
He’ll be missed by all of us in the field of technology.
We’re pleased to announce the 2011 Worfolk Lecture.
Last year we announced the creation of a fund to support an annual public understanding of science lecture. The first of which took place in November with Dr Terrence Kee presenting a talk on “did life on Earth originate on Earth?” If you missed it, you can watch again in high definition on the Worfolk Lectures website.
This year’s talk will be presented by Professor David Jenkins on “From Rutherford to the Large Hadron Collider.” the event takes place on Tuesday 18 October, starting at 7pm. There will be a £2 on the door charge and all revenue will go to the host society – this year’s event will be hosted by Leeds Atheist Society and more information can be found on their website.
You can register online for the event here.
