10 Tools for Lifelong Learners

Do your New Year resolutions include the usual "self-improvement resolutions"? If so, here's a list of free educational resources and start planning! There are free audio book classics, language lessons, university lectures, film libraries and more.

Bought the clothing – now get the franchise!

From the Rohan website: Lots of us have spent many happy hours in Rohan Shops, some of us may have dreamed of owning our own.

Interested? Please click the link & register your interest prior to the official launch of the Rohan franchise opportunity in January 2010.

Virtual book: Handel’s Messiah

For many people, listening to Handel's Messiah is part of their Christmas ritual. The British Library has recently added Handel’s Messiah (from the draft score of the composer’s most famous work), using the BL's 'Turning the Pages™' system to view great books and magnify the details.

Happy Christmas!

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

The USB-heated mouse

Feeling the cold?

Stay warm while you surf the web with a USB-heated mouse!

Karaoke Carols

The Rejesus site has a new front page and additional content for Christmas. This includes Karaoke Carols: enjoy a carol service in the comfort of your own computer screen with a choice of 10 karaoke carols.

Interactive guide to Doctor Who and his regenerations‏

The Guardian has published a complete interactive guide to Doctor Who and his regenerations. As we prepare for the departure of David Tennant and the arrival of Matt Smith as the 11th incarnation of the Doctor, it looks back at how his predecessors met their fates.

Researchers report big drop in Christian adherence in UK

The Church Times reports that a new study suggests that belief in God in the UK continues to lag a long way behind the United States. In the US, 61 per cent of those surveyed said that they had “no doubt” that God existed; in the UK, the percentage was just 17. In the US, just four per cent said that they were not religious at all: they don’t believe in God, attend religious services, or even identify with a reli­gion; in the UK the percentage was 31.

The figures come in a paper by David Voas and Rodney Ling, to be published in British Social Attitudes: The 26th report, to be released on 27 January. The US figures are based on the American General Social Survey 2008; the UK ones come from the 2008 British Social Attitudes survey, which interviewed 4486 people.

Open University Christianity survey

In the 2001 Census, 71.6% of people in the UK described themselves as Christians, but only about 15% of these said they belonged to, or were active members of, a church.

The Open University has developed an on-line survey which has the objective of improving understanding of what it means to be a Christian without a church. Hopefully, we will soon have a better idea of what people mean nowadays when they describe themselves as Christian.

You can share your views, and learn about other people, in this anonymous survey:
http://www.open2.net/survey/history_of_christianity/embed.html

The Nativity Play

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

International Tea Day

Today is International Tea Day - please ask the top 5 British tea brands to go Fairtrade and make every cuppa a fair cuppa.

The Make It Fair website has now launched - check out http://www.makeitfair.org.uk/ to find out about our new tea campaign!