Richard's Blog - August 2012

Mars panorama

Another amazing image of Mars from NASA. This panorama was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity during the most recent Martian winter. Click on the photo above to view the full-size panorama. Enjoy! You can even take a 3D tour of Mars yourself by following the Curiosity mission on NASA’s website. 3D tours of space – now there’s an idea Virgin Galactic! Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.…

Civilians suffer in Syria

Civilians are still enduring horrific levels of violence in Syria. Amnesty International has published a new report that illustrates how the people of Aleppo are bearing the brunt of the fight between the Syrian government and the opposition.This truly shocking video shows the situation in detail and really brings home how urgently the crisis needs to be dealt with by the international community, and why there must be respect for human rights by all sides. Amnesty International Senior Crisis …

From space to Merriweather Post Pavilion

The next stop on Virgin’s musical merry-go-round is Virgin Mobile Live’s FreeFest in the US on October. The line-up is out, with the likes of Jack White and Alabama Shakes (I must get around to listening to them!) on the bill. Skrillex, who we met up with earlier this year at the GRAMMYs, is also on the bill.FreeFest is always a fantastic event, with everyone getting in for free in exchange for giving back to charity and helping tackle youth homelessness. In the past three years Free…

Paralympics pride

Like many people all over the world, I am greatly looking forward to experiencing the Paralympics over the coming 11 days.The Paralympic Games challenges preconceptions about disability and perceptions of human possibility. It is also another fantastic platform for high-class sport - the athletes aren't being billed superhumans for nothing. It will be particularly interesting to watch those sports that are exclusive to the Paralympics (goalball and boccia) and enjoy more incredible feats of athl…

Virgin Trains goes to court

Virgin Trains has started Court proceedings in respect of the decision to award the West Coast Main Line franchise to FirstGroup. We had hoped that Parliament or an external review would be able to scrutinise this badly flawed process before the franchise was signed.However that opportunity would be denied if the DfT follows through with its determination to rush through the process before Parliament returns next week.That ignores the wishes of more than 150,000 people who signed the Downing St…

Take the competition seriously

Take the competition seriously, but not yourself.

Hillary Clinton on Girls Not Brides

Thank you for all your feedback on the Girls Not Brides blog published recently. It is good to know that so many of you feel strongly about this issue and want to help change it.Lots of you called for more action from governments to stop child marriage, while others suggested a shift in education models is the way to tackle the problem. Hillary Clinton also spoke out on the issue recently after meeting with Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel of The Elders in Pretoria.She commented: “I want to…

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