On that note, I crown myself Queen.

On the grounds that I rather like the idea of being a Queen I have decided to declare my own micronation (name to be decided).

This is the flag.

I have chosen Magikarp to appear on the national flag as a reminder than the smallest and seemingly most useless are often the biggest BAMFs. I picked heliotrope and that particularly pleasant shade of near-mint-green because heliotrope is my favourite colour (and word) and Wolfram alpha showed the green as a complementary colour and I rather liked it so I chose it.

Magikarp and the heliotrope/green colour scheme are the national animal and colours respectively.

I haven't decided on a national anthem yet, but I have narrowed down the selection to the following shortlist:

Cornelius Fudge Is An Ass by Harry and the Potters

World Of Warcraft Ruined My Life by ALL CAPS

House Song by Ministry of Magic

Shake-a-Booty by Hank Green

I Wanna Be On TV by Joe Moses & Charlene Kaye

Here We Go by Jason Gochin (from the Digimon: The Movie soundtrack because yes)

Happy Roaming from the LEGO Island soundtrack

Liam's Got A Phone Call by The Liams! (or StarKid. Whatever.)

Because my micronation is a democratorship I shall listen to my subjects (if anybody is interested in joining my micronation) before going ahead and doing whatever I like. :)

The national religion shall be non-denominational Christianity but, in the same way that it is not compulsory to be Anglican in England, it is not compulsory.

Yeah, I think that's about it for now. Voting on the national anthem is encouraged in the comments, as is signing up to join. The country shall have open borders but you can defend your own property within those borders as fiercely as you like.

The great thing about pessimism is that if your expectations of the world are low enough it is impossible to be disappointed.

There has been a lot of fuss in the last few days over the fact that GCSE results have been slightly lower than they have been in previous years, bucking the trend of going up and up indefinitely they had been following for the last goodness knows how long. Granted, the current educational system is a bit rubbish (or completely CRAP), but surely I'm not the only one who sees these changes as a good thing?

It goes without saying that results cannot continue to just improve until everybody is getting A*s in everything, the whole point of grades is to distinguish between the best students. As a solution to this problem, I should like to propose a massive overhaul of the entire education system (up to the end of secondary school at any rate) which rationally makes far more sense than the current one. Bear with me, however mad some of these ideas may sound (nobody likes change) they are actually far more logical.

To start with, to eliminate the problem of people complaining about grades, I propose that the current grade system be scrapped entirely and that students instead be given their percentiles, thus better showing exactly how they compare with their peers which would make it easier for universities/workplaces to decide which students to take on. This also has the added advantage of ensuring that it is possible to compare students in a variety of ways - in individual subjects, overall (combining marks from everything), over many years if you add different year groups into your sample, et cetera.

The next major change I propose is banning P.E. (most kids hate standing around in muddy fields first thing in the morning and get very little out of it) and instead splitting "biology" into "physiology" and "botany" and making it compulsory for students to attend at least one before-school (more on that later) sports club of their choosing. This would do a better job of encouraging pupils to be active and combating obesity than the P.E. lessons given currently as the students would be given more choice to actually do sports they want to do.

On the "before-school" clubs I mentioned in the previous paragraph, this is because it is widely accepted that students (teenagers in particular) do not work best first thing in the morning. My proposed school-day would start at 11:30am or so and finish at 7:00pm, with before-school sports clubs starting at around 10:00am. I think that this would work better because the physical activity before learning would do a good job of waking the students up nicely without tiring them out too much (obviously lunch would be at around 1:00pm, an afternoon break at 4:00pm or so and then students would eat their evening meal at home after school).

My next overhaul would be the qualifications students take in the first place. Instead of the current GCSE/A-Level system, I propose making it compulsory at sixteen to take a core qualification (worth less than a GCSE) in every school subject (currently on my list are grammar, rhetoric, logic, philosophy, literature, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, physiology, botany, Latin, history, geography, religious studies, computer science, music, art and psychology but I may add to it) to show that the student has a good academic grounding. In addition to this, the student would have the option to take further qualifications (instead of the core qualification and worth more than a GCSE but less than an A-Level) in a few of the core subjects of their choice with some additional options (extra languages like French, Mandarin, Spanish, Japanese, German, Russian etc., more specific branches of the sciences etc.) that would not be included as core subjects.

At eighteen, having finished their core qualifications students would take more further qualifications, possibly taking an even further one (worth two A-Levels) in the subject they intended to continue at university.

As you may have gathered from the above list of proposed core subjects I think it would be a brilliant idea to place more of an emphasis on the classic liberal arts in order to promote rationality and good communication, which I have noticed is something the world seems to lack and that you can never have enough of. The trivium shall be taught during what are now "tutorials" which will become times to collect valuable life skills, which shall also include a thorough grounding in politics, business and managing money among other topics.

In addition to the before-school sports clubs, there shall be clubs offering the equivalent of food technology (which will be renamed "cookery" to avoid pretentiousness), textiles, extra programming languages and basically anything else students want to explore. In some cases (programming languages, etc.) a certificate worth a core qualification might be offered.

Logically, I think that my changes would make for a brilliant system. Of course, it would take a lot of getting used to, but to my mind staying in a crap system just because you're used to it never helped anybody. I now call on my two readers (or something like that) to get me into office in order that I might implement my changes and improve this country for the better. Or to just not tell me that I'm rubbish. That would work too.

Lowri

Autism: the issue that shouldn't be.

Let me just start off by saying that if you think that with that title I'm saying autism shouldn't exist, you can get off my blog right now because you're obviously an idiot who wouldn't be able to comprehend anything I am about to say.

I read an article in the Daily Mail today that made me exceedingly angry. While this will almost certainly surprise nobody, I feel compelled to clarify: the article in question was this one and although the reader was obviously meant to become angry about the idea that this boy supposedly may have been given autism by his MMR vaccine, I was angry for several completely different reasons. Let me explain.

For those who have not worked it out for themselves yet, I am autistic myself (Aspergers, to be precise). I am currently in the process of being referred to a psychiatric hospital in an attempt to get a formal diagnosis (which I almost certainly will), and I don't really give a dam who knows this - it is just something about me, like the fact that I am short, dark and consider myself Welsh even though I'm actually just as much (if not more) Irish.

With that established, the main reason why I was so affected by this article was because it felt like a personal insult. The tone of the article very much screamed "victory! This woman is receiving compensation because she was done an injustice!" which I have several big problems with. Even disregarding the fact that the original research showing a link was later revealed to be fraudulent (1) (2) (3) (4) and Andrew Wakefield, the man responsible for the research, was struck off the Medical Register for it, the mere fact that people are so worried about a potential link is rather offensive. The way I, and the vast majority of the autistic community see it, autism is not a disorder or an illness to be cured, it is an unusual and uncontrollable difference like being ginger or actually liking Nickelback. (Both of which I admittedly freely poke fun at, but I wouldn't seriously suggest eradicating all gingers or the entire fanbase of what I'm sure are some, er, very nice people?)

With this in mind, the idea that people would rather risk letting their child die from a potentially deadly disease than take a far smaller risk that they might develop autism makes me extremely sad. Are people really so eager to eradicate a character trait that is part of what makes me (and many others) who I am (or they are) just because they don't understand it? Personally, I don't even want a cure, I just want to be accepted, and to be treated like the intelligent human being I am. There is nothing wrong with me and I am not deserving of pity. Being autistic is not a tragedy and is certainly not deserving of the attention it gets from being (incorrectly) linked with a vaccine: my point is, frankly, that even if there was a link, it should be no big deal, unworthy of mass hysteria. Possibly some sort of a novelty, like it would be if the vaccine magically turned people into gingers or Nickelback fans. There is no real difference in the scenarios.

I find that although autism is covered a lot in the media the overwhelming majority of what gets reported is to do with the families of those with autism, endless explanations of how terrible, how difficult it is to live with somebody autistic because they do things differently from you that you don't understand, and hardly anybody pays any attention to the people with autism themselves. The end result is that everybody thinks they know autism, when in reality they have no chance of understanding what they have never experienced. I can't even put into words a lot of what goes through my head, and I can't show you my thoughts, so how can you ever know how my brain works? It is for this reason (among others) I disagree with the charity Autism Speaks - for an example, there is not one person with autism on the board. Would you support a charity called Womanhood Speaks if it were run by men, and dedicated to curing people of being female when the vast majority of women are perfectly happy as they are, thank you very much? Just some food for thought.

If anybody has any questions, you can leave them in the comments and I'll add a section at the end of this post to answer them.

Lowri

On the subject of gay marriage

Pretty much everyone is aware that the current Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government have scrapped plans to introduce gay marriage, and Tumblr in particular is up in arms about this fact. As a matter of fact, I wholeheartedly agree with the government on this issue. It's just not an important thing to worry about compared with the rather more serious problem of the recession the country is technically in - it's a matter of priority, and right now it's far more important to pay off the country's debts and improve the financial situation. A country needs money to function, whatever that says about society. That's just the way it is, and the way it always will be. Honestly, I'm pretty fed up with the vast majority of Tumblr users (obviously in addition to a lot of other people) going on about how gays should have the "right" to get married, and to them I would point out that the United Kingdom offers civil partnerships which afford a couple the same legal rights as a married heterosexual couple, so the only difference in practice is the name. I fail to see why this isn't good enough for any of the "gay rights" activists. I daresay a response I might get to that is "but they're not being given the RIGHT to marriage!" to which I would reply that marriage isn't simply a right, it's a traditional agreement and a legal contract with very specific parameters, and by definition they are between a male and a female. There is simply no logical reason to change that fact, and it is wrong to claim that not changing things is taking away people's rights because the only thing it would change is a name. For the record, I'm not biased in any way towards either a heterosexual or homosexual argument because I don't even care about pointless things like that that only serve to waste time. I have looked at things logically and stated facts. Please do not hunt me down on Tumblr and send me Anonymous hate, I received enough the last time I pointed out that positive discrimination is just as bad as negative discrimination. I do love the website, but I hate how you'll get savaged if you're anything other than excessively liberal and atheist, neither of which I am. In other news, I have decided that I wish to turn my bedroom into a chemistry laboratory after my parents essentially chucked everything out and made it empty. I need a hobby that will challenge me intellectually and I have a lab coat sitting unused in my wardrobe. Perfect solution. -Lowri

On SOPA/PIPA

Despite ordinarily being known for my staunch capitalist rants, I feel compelled to blog about the issue of some notorious proposed anti-piracy legislation which could potentially threaten the entire internet. In case it does not become apparent over the course of the next several minutes, I am in a particularly rebellious mood.

Firstly, I would like to discuss the consequences of either of these bills being passed for the benefit of anybody who happens to have been living under a rock for the last couple of months. The idea of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act are essentially to block websites which have been violating copyright law and posting intellectual property without the owner's permission, thus preventing the spread of copyrighted material illegally. This is fair enough, but the methods utilised in attempting to do this are rather draconian and completely unacceptable, and undermine the very existence of the entire internet.

For example, if the holder of intellectual property suspects that a website is hosting copyrighted material, they can write to the internet provider simply with a statement of a "good faith belief" that the website in question is violating copyright law, and the provider has five days to either block the website or challenge the claim, which can be expensive legally. Basically, the accuser is not made to be accountable and can make as many accusations as they like without being taken responsible if their claim is wrong. This is an example of rather extreme bias and is highly unfair, particularly to small websites which could be wrongly accused which probably would not have the funds to challenge a claim.

Eh, well, I'm sure you've heard the horror stories from elsewhere on tinternet so I shan't bore you with a long list of reasons why SOPA and PIPA are crap ideas. Instead I shall give you a list of ways in which one might rebel against the bills.

Firstly, if you're American (I'm not, so I can't do this), PLEASE take the time to either write to your local politician (over here we have MPs, I don't know what you have. Congressmen or something?) urging them to oppose it, or phone or actually go and see them if you want to make a bigger impact. Seriously, the further out of the way you go to oppose the bills, the bigger the impact will be. If you take the time every day to phone saying you don't like the proposed laws, the message will be stronger than if you sign an internet petition.

For people NOT in the US, we can still help. We can write blog posts stirring up rebellion, instruct others on how to access websites that would be blocked if SOPA/PIPA went through (more on that in a minute), organise protests, further Operation Blackout et cetera.

After the blackout of various websites yesterday, the public's response was so big that politicians' websites were inadvertently DDoS'd, everything was going crazy, and several politicians who were supporting the bills actually switched and are now opposing them. The danger is that in the next couple of days the opposition may wane, thinking the worst is over, but we need to keep up a relentless attack on the forces which seek to take down the internet as we know it if we want to actually achieve anything.

E-mail Lamar Smith (or take a sledgehammer to his front door) asking why saw fit to propose such an utterly rubbish law, overwhelm the answering machines of politicians, if you're not an American write to your own politicians telling them that we do not want a similar scenario in our own countries, we have to do anything we can. As I've said, the more we go out of our way to oppose this, the more effective our protest will be.

We need to remember that the people who support this law either want to censor the internet knowing full well that it will have adverse effects on the United States' economy by severely hindering the growth in such a large sector of the economy, or that they just have absolutely no idea what they're actually doing. Just bear that in mind.

Now, IF SOPA/PIPA end up going through, several websites will be blocked. However, the block itself is only a domain name system server takedown and can easily be bypassed, if you know how. The way to do this is to find out how to get the IP addresses of your favourite website using the command prompt (Google is good for instructions) and use the IP address instead of the website's URL. For example, Facebook is 69.171.224.11 , Tumblr is 174.121.194.34 , Youtube is 74.125.65.91 , Reddit is 72.247.244.88 , et cetera.

My last point is, simply, PLEASE SPREAD THIS. If websites' URLs do end up blocked, if everybody doesn't realise that the websites can still be accessed then they'll leave the websites and they won't be worth visiting any more.

That is how the internet truly dies; when people abandon it. Not when some badly-written piece of prose gives large companies the power to censor whatever the hell they like.

The internet will survive, but only so long as people fight to make it survive.


Now, for all those saying that in writing anything like this I'm essentially taking a stroll in front of the firing squad, and that I could potentially be extradited to America if either/both of the bills go through, I don't really give a dam.

YOU CAN'T ARREST AN IDEA.