Why won't we let them play?

Over the years it has become more apparent that children spend less time playing than they did in previous generations. Each year, there are less and less children playing outside ...

Is it through children's desires that less time is spent playing or is playtime thought to be unnecessary by those who administer to children's needs? The main fault is the fact that children go to school. They receive lessons and begin exercises very often being asked to finish what they haven't completed in class at home. Often there are homework subjects on top. What isn't finished off during the week is left for the weekend. So when do these young people have time off to play?

No wonder populations from all over the world are becoming obese and unhealthy - it's about time we allowed our children to be children and have time to play.

Blender

A member of my family stumbled across a program that is useful for anyone who enjoys art or creating things. Blender is a superb program that allows the user to create drawings and animations to a professional quality. The creation of "Ginger Tom" below has been created by a member of my family. This is the first thing he has done after reading through the tutorial. The fluffy cat was created from an oblong shape for the body, a squashed round shape for the head, four oblong shapes for the legs and a snake like curve oblong for the tail. After adding a fur texture the result is the shape above.

The eyes have to then be created. In this case a basic round blue eye was made then a variation of this as the colour was changed and the pupil lengthened to resemble a cat's eye. A nose and mouth shape also has to be made and added to the basic cat form.

Then a variety of colours may be introduced to make the finished creature more interesting.

(See below.)

Ginger Tom

The above ginger tom cat was made using Blender which was obtained from http://www.blender.org/. It enables you to be able to do professional quality cartoons and 3D modelling such as film quality CGI ....

To show a further illustration of how to use the blender program there is a tutorial on YouTube - it begins with showing how to create a dragon from a sketch:

Step 1

Step 2

To follow further steps on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Dragonrose&search=Search

Life v Death

What is the difference between what is classified as a civilised country and one that is not? The first priority has to be the way it regards its citizens. Does it offer them the right to be treated for free if they become ill? Or can it only provide cures and treatments for those who are wealthy enough to be able to afford payment? Does it offer free education to the young? Does it give payments to those who are unable to work for a living? Does it provide shelter for those without a home of their own? If a country cannot cherish its people then surely it cannot be regarded as civilised.

If a country cherishes its people then it cannot choose to cherish some more than others. All life must be regarded as important and equal. If there are people who break the law, then somewhere in their past that country has failed them. Whether it is through badly educated parents not knowing how to bring their children up correctly, lack of supervision during their adolescence or poor teaching during their schooling. Somewhere, along the line, someone hasn't done quite enough to make a human being act responsibly and within the boundaries of the law of the land. But what if, at some point, even when a country may have done all that it can to keep a person on the straight and narrow - they have deviated? They may have done something so despicable that it makes us all recoil in horror. What should a country and its people do then?

When I was very young people spoke about execution and hanging as the answer to those who committed murder or other heinous acts. People, in those times thought that it was the correct and only way to deal with those who committed dreadful crimes. It no longer is an option in my country. It still is regarded as normal practise in some. Though as you gain more knowledge in life, how can it be right to snuff out someone's life as payment for their crime? Surely then you too become the same as them. You certainly cannnot be regarded any better for by using any form of execution as a punishment you then become a murderer. Currently, peoples freedom is taken from them as a punishment. Sometimes, this is for the rest of their remaining life on earth and sometimes it is for just a few short years.

Unusual recipe

Meadowsweet Cake

Ingredients

2 heaped tablespoons of plain white flour

2 heaped tablespoons of rolled oats

1 heaped tablespoon of ground almonds

1 heaped tablespoon of desiccated coconut

2 tablespoons of granulated sugar

4 oz of butter

2 medium eggs

Splash of milk

Splash of carbonated mineral water

Drizzle of olive oil

2 teaspoons of baking powder

Small pinch of salt

Marzipan

Method

Place the coconut into a small dish and add one teaspoon of sugar, drizzle of olive oil and splash of milk and stir into a paste. Put the flour, rolled oats, ground almonds, sugar, baking powder and pinch of salt into a mixing bowl and give a quick stir. Add the softened butter using a small round end table knife to cut it through the mixture - once it is a crumb like appearance add the eggs and coconut paste and the splash of mineral water. Using the knife quickly mix all the ingredients together - mix vigorously. Add extra liquid (either milk or carbonated mineral water) if the mixture appears too dry.

Lightly grease a small flat cake tin - place approximately one third of the mixture into the tin evenly across the bottom. Thinly slice the marzipan into small portions - place these across the whole of the cake mix so that all of the mixture is covered. Spoon on the remainder of the mixture evenly spreading over the marzipan layer. This can be left smooth or a small mixture of ground almonds with a little sugar can be sprinkled on the top. May be decorated with a few marzipan shapes if desired (very effective in the shape of a daisy flower).

Place in a moderate oven - gas mark 4 - 180 °C - 350 °F for approximately 45 minutes. Allow to cool if eating as a cake, but can be eaten warm as a pudding.