Current Affairs Articles

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Thomas Pretty @ Thursday, 28th August 2008 @ 12:09 PM

Heathrow airport can be considered one of the oldest airports within the UK, its early use being in the First World War as a training airfield for the first military pilots. Military services in terms of operational sorties were practically non existent meaning that the site can almost solely trace its development as a commercial airport. At its inception the airfield had six runways in a star shape, a requirement due to the take off restrictions of early aircraft. At the time the centrally loca... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Catherine Harvey @ Wednesday, 27th August 2008 @ 1:14 PM

In that wonderful way that health and safety anoraks have, yet again we are being banned from that everyday stuff that many of us call 'life'. In one small UK village, the local market hall clock winders have been doing their job for over 150 years and have now been told it's dangerous and they must stop. Without the appropriate health and safety training or aids, an accident could happen and somebody could be held liable. So, what is the problem? Are the clock winders conc... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Ki Gray @ Tuesday, 26th August 2008 @ 8:53 PM

It takes unimaginable amounts of energy to power the United States, and the needs is constantly growing. As global warming and fuel crises gain more and more public attention, people everywhere are now looking for ways to live a greener lifestyle. But this doesn't mean rebuilding your home to run on solar energy, or overhauling your current lifestyle. There are plenty of small, simple things you can do every day to help reduce your household's energy consumption (and even waste). Here... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Steven Walters @ Tuesday, 26th August 2008 @ 7:20 PM

Steroid use rumors and steroid bans are nothing new when it comes to the Olympics and it looks like the Beijing 2008 Olympics will be no different than the past Olympic games. Olympic history is peppered with steroid abuse stories including the very famous stories on Ben Johnson in the 1988 Olympics and more recently Marion Jones. This years Beijing Olympic games has seen dozens of athletes from around the world being banned for steroid use and doping. The U.S. swimming team has had sever... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Thomas Pretty @ Tuesday, 19th August 2008 @ 1:45 AM

According to recent government estimates the average household uses around fifty thousand litres of water each year purely for drinking and bathing. When put into context this amount is enough to fill the average size private swimming pool; additionally, if this amount of water was bough in shops in bottles, it would cost around twenty thousand pounds. Considering this figure, the water bills we must pay seem a bargain, but while it is still relatively cheap, bills have increased steadily in rec... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Samantha Gilmartin @ Friday, 15th August 2008 @ 9:43 AM

Just before 8:00pm on the 8th day of the 8th month of 2008, 2,008 drummers silently stood in neat, dark rows at the heart of China's National 'Bird's Nest' Stadium. As the countdown to the opening of the 29th Olympic Games began, counted simultaneously in western and Mandarin figures, the pounding roll of the drums began to rise. From less than a whisper the drums swelled to a deafening roar in an ancient rhythmic ritual designed to evoke the ancestral spirits of China. <... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Kristi Ambrose @ Friday, 15th August 2008 @ 2:17 AM

I have never been that interested in what the "celebrities" were doing. I was too busy living my own exciting life filled with my relationships, work, moving, gaining weight, losing weight among all the other stuff we all go through. But one day my cousin sent me an email titled "Latest Movie Star Exposed!" with reference to a celebrity that was in one of the latest movies. It showed her doing a very scandalous act that was not only funny but astonishing, it made me think, my lif... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Christine Harrell @ Thursday, 14th August 2008 @ 9:19 AM

The Senate and the House have passed a bill that will provide grants to educate court reporters specializing in realtime communication. These reporters will provide captioning for live television broadcasts, improving access for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. A Short History of Captioning In 1980, American television started broadcasting the first closed-captioned programs. These broadcasts had subtitles so that deaf and hard of hearing viewers could enjoy programs along with ev... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Gerald Greene @ Monday, 11th August 2008 @ 9:08 PM

While watching the Olympic games on TV I couldn't help notice a for the most part a relaxed and happy looking President Bush taking in the splendor and excitement of the Olympic games as displayed in the splendid Beijing venues constructed by the Chinese. The British have quite a challenge in hosting the games in 2012 to the new standards achieved by the Chinese. It is a shame that President Bush couldn't enjoy the games without being required by events to engage in serious meet... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Tibor A. Palatinus @ Monday, 11th August 2008 @ 5:10 AM

Drug dealers, anonymous terrorists and other anti-social individuals and groups have used drugs as the major method of creating disaster and chaos in society. The anonymous and hidden nature of drug pushing can only continue IF the purveyor (seller) remains secret or hidden from direct view. Drug Abuse and drug pushing has been directly connected to terrorism. The funding of terrorism is achieved in many cases, through the sales of drugs. And drug abuse alone, produces chaos within ones f... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Ki Gray @ Sunday, 10th August 2008 @ 3:39 PM

Rising gas prices along with general increases in cost of living across the board are forcing many people to tighten their budgets and cut excess spending. In order to maintain a certain standard of living, people everywhere are looking for new ways to stretch their paychecks and make ends meet. While most people cannot realistically cut the cost of gasoline from their budgets, millions are finding ways to creatively cut back on fuel costs. Here are just a few ways you can help minimize your gas... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Thomas Pretty @ Saturday, 9th August 2008 @ 8:15 AM

The current estimates of average household water usage state that most homes use around 55,000 litres a year for drinking and bathing. This amount is large enough to fill the average private swimming pool and if bought as bottled mineral water would cost nearly twenty thousand pounds. Thankfully water bills are not as high but have been steadily increasing over the last few years. As household budgets are becoming increasingly stretched it is not surprising that so many people are deciding to sw... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Bruce Lipski @ Tuesday, 5th August 2008 @ 12:24 PM

There is a huge push to make talking on a cell phone while driving illegal. Many states have already passed laws that make it so. But when you think about it, what really is the reason for this attack on cell phone users? There are many things that people do in their car while driving which can be considered as distracting and dangerous. Smoking is an activity that is surely just as distracting as talking on your cell phone. How many times have you pulled up to a traffic light to see the ... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Maxine Clarke @ Tuesday, 5th August 2008 @ 4:14 AM

As the effects of escalating oil costs continue to affect industries across the board, the credit crunch looks set to hit the consumer hardest once again. Ryanair are the latest company to reveal the extent of its financial hardships, with annual losses expected to approach GBP50 million. In fact, in the three months to the end of June, the carrier's net profits had fallen a staggering 85% to just 21 million euro. With the significant increases in the price of oil over the p... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Ki Gray @ Saturday, 2nd August 2008 @ 11:52 PM

After falling for most of the month of July Mortgage interest rates jumped up. And not only did they move up they jumped to the highest levels we have seen in 2008. 30 Year rates jumped from 6.26 to 6.63 last week. To put that in perspective for the entire month of May mortgage rates fluctuated between 5.98 to 6.08. The increases were not confined to 30 Year rates, 15 year rates went from 5.78 to 6.18, 5 Year Arms went from 5.80 to 6.16 and 1 Year Arms went from 5.10 to 5.49. The interest r... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Catherine Harvey @ Thursday, 31st July 2008 @ 8:24 PM

Does it ever make you wonder what goes through designers and builders heads when you see some of the ultra modern buildings that we have today? Personally speaking, I think it's a good thing to see the results of architectural visualisation that lead us to some of the high tech buildings we have today. If we have to have a landscape littered with practical buildings then why not make them beautiful, practical buildings? Designers and architects have been challenged greatly over the ... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Kristi Ambrose @ Saturday, 26th July 2008 @ 4:34 PM

In this day and age, many people are becoming more aware of the environment as well as the world around them. If you're an official "Greenie" or you want to get into organic gardening there a few really easy ways to go about this! First off, why should you try anything organic or "green?" Its been said since the 1980s and even earlier on that there was a huge hole forming in the ozone from things like methane gases from garbage dumps, animals becoming extinct because of l... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Catherine Harvey @ Thursday, 24th July 2008 @ 5:14 AM

The health and safety experts have been at it again. The age old tradition of children participating in sack races at schools sports day, all in the name of that horrendous past time called fun, have been ruled out on the grounds that it is dangerous. I suppose it's because of that awful chaffing of the sack cloth against the children's knees. Sack cloth injuries may not be life threatening but they are detrimental to the children's quality of life. After all, we all know w... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Gerald Greene @ Wednesday, 23rd July 2008 @ 3:18 PM

T. Boone Pickens is a legendary Oil man and investor who reached the billionaire stage long ago. Pickens knows a thing or two about oil drilling and America's dependence upon foreign oil. In a recent interview with CNN's Lou Dobbs, Pickens had this to say about the sad state of America's current energy position. "The problem is unbelievable for this country. We are in a crisis mode and let me give it to you right quick. We're spending $700 billion a year on ... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Patrick Omari @ Friday, 18th July 2008 @ 9:48 PM

Equitable Life promised money that it couldn't afford, building a house of cards that would capitulate in 2000. Throughout the 1990s, the life insurance company promised so much and would eventually deliver so little when the company's assets were valued at 3 billion pounds less than the customers' policies. Ann Abraham, Parliamentary Ombudsman for the Equitable Life debacle has declared that the government should admit negligence for their part. The government is accused o... more...