Student Central Build In Progress

Went on a tour of the new building last week with the Student Union. It took over an hour and a half to visit all three floors - it is a pretty big building even with all the walls knocked down. Here are some random and poor quality interior photos. The best bit is the roof (looks great) and also the roof garden (great view of the amphitheatre and ideal sun spot).

Spending cuts

So the first tranche of "new" cuts amounting to £6.2 Billion are announced by the coalition governmnet. This story will clearly develop over time. Initially doesn't look that bad for HE with this BBC story which is effectively still a 10,000 student place INCREASE. However, I suspect that there will be some nasties buried in the £600Million+ savings for the BIS Department of which HE is one part. Things of potential interest include HEFCE, Yorkshire Forward and so-called quangos like JISC.

Monaco Grand Prix 2010

The famous racing driver (Graham Hill) won Monaco on five occassions. Since I can remember, it has been on the "tick list" to visit the French Riviera for the GP and we finally went this year - me and fellow petrolhead Joseph (Billy). We stayed in Nice and travelled by SNCF to Monaco on Saturday for qualifying session watching from a balcony at St Devote, the first corner and exit from the pit lane. We walked the track after the GP2 race and collected some carbon fibre debris as a trophy from Petrov's binned Renault at the first corner. We watched the race itself at a fantastic sports bar in Nice (Ma Nolans) and then got caught up inthe volcanic ash cloud so could not fly home on Sunday night as planned. Instead we had to suffer Monday - back to Monaco for the circuit "teardown", including a visit to Beaulieu sur Mer for late afternoon sun, Tuesday to Cannes for the film festival where we trod the red carpet, mingled with celebrities and took a photo of Glenn Close at the opening of Tamara Drewe (which I thought was a famous actor not a film), and Wednesday visiting a few cultural places in Nice including the Russian Cathedral and the Museum Massena. Billy took hundreds of photos and videos including a string of 50+ cars outside the Casino and Hotel de Paris in Casino Square where it costs up to 25,000 Euros for the GP package - Ferrari, Lambo, Bentley, Tesla, SLR, volvo estate etc etc.

Kindle Critical Battery

For future reference:

Our Kindle 2 ran out of power and had a splash screen with message:

Critical Battery

Your battery is empty.

To continue using your Kindle, connect it to a power source.

It may take a few minutes of charging before your Kindle starts.

Kindle Support say (in this exact sequence):

1. Slide the power button and hold it for 30 sec.

2. Release and wait for 20 sec until the screen begins to flash.

3. As soon as it does, plug in the power and keep it connected for 2 hours.

Gordon Brown visits University May 5th

On the eve of the General Election 2010 Gordon Brown made a visit and gave a speech urging the country to vote Labour. The Atrium was packed as word spread of his arrival from early morning. A very positive visit for the City and the University although more could have been made of the strong historical links with the University and the Labour Party (Harold Wilson was the first Chancellor of the University of Bradford). Maybe that sort of political endorsment is no longer "politically correct!". Pictures here.