Archive for April, 2010
01/04/2010 No comments

New for Dorset and Devon – the Jurassic Coast iPhone app

iPHONE users can now let their fingers do the walking along 95 miles of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.

A new free app allows users to scroll through 185 million years of Earth history,  between Exmouth in Devon and Studland in Dorset, by touching their iPhone’s screen.

The application’s content is a slimmed-down version of the Jurassic Coast interactive CD on sale at visitor centres along the coast. It shows a continuous linear image of the World Heritage Site photographed from the sea, looking back at the coastline.

Insights and facts about the coast, its geology and history are provided, along with features such as an animation showing how the rocks were laid down, tilted and eroded, to form the present day coastline.

The app has been developed for the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site team, based at Dorset County Council, by Aviation Partners. The South West Regional Development Agency helped to fund the work, as part of its investment into the World Heritage Site.

The app can be downloaded for free from the iTunes store (go to http://itunes.apple.com and search for ‘Jurassic Coast’) and it can be used on either an iPhone or iPod Touch.

For more information, go to http://www.jurassiccoast.com
01/04/2010 2 Comments

Exclusive: Billy Bragg hands over his taxes – and a fine

THE SINGER and politicial activist Billy Bragg has conceded defeat in his campaign to make the Chancellor of the Exchequer curb bonus payments to investment bankers at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). 

Back in mid-January, Billy Bragg announced that he was going to withhold paying his taxes in protest at the Chancelor’s inaction.

More than 30,000 people joined a pressure group called nobonus4rbs aimed at capping payouts to RBS bankers at £25,000.

But on Facebook Billy Bragg has now posted a message saying: “I paid my taxes today, as well as the first fine for withholding them for the past two months. Our window of opportunity to put pressure on the Chancellor has passed and I have no wish to become a martyr. With the general election campaign just days away, I’d be interested to hear your ideas about where we go from here.”

Four responses so far on Facebook included this from Chris Bromley: “My view is that this whole stance needs the backing of people who are comfortably off, as well as the ‘converted’. We have to appeal to their innate sense of fairness and justice, without threatening/jeopardising their right to just financial reward and lifestyle.” 

In an article for The Guardian in January, Mr Bragg, who lives in the West Dorset village of Burton Bradstock, near Bridport, asked: “What if everybody did this? Perhaps some form of anarchy would ensue. But if we are going to bring “what ifs” into the debate, then what if we lived in a society that heaped financial rewards on teachers and nurses and soldiers rather than bankers? What if we had a financial system that encouraged fairness rather than greed?