Who says students don't care?
Last week a group of students from Newcastle University kindly came to the rescue at the Ash concert which was held at the Carling Academy.

An unsolicited email arrives at The Journal newsdesk.

"Spam, or unsolicited e-mail," it says, "has become an accepted annoyance for any business that uses e-mail as a communication tool."

Yeah - funny you should mention that...

Those of us who enjoy dates may recall that 17th October marks the anniversary of this famous local fracas, fought in 1346.

At this time the Hundred Years War was just gathering pace and, in that August, the English had resoundingly hammered the French at Crecy.

Even in this dismal epoch of political correctness, which brooks no opposition, beating up the French is still permitted. We apologise to all ethnic minorities everywhere, whether we've offended their great-grandfathers or not but the French are still fair game. Praise the Lord.

GOOD THING: Uncovering weirdness on YouTube

I would like to reassure my boss now that I don’t distract myself with YouTube at work – for one thing, it’s way too noisy for me to ever get away with.

Half term is just around the corner and I have just the job to keep the little rascals busy.

On the 28th of this month I'll be offering a presentation at the Newcastle Limmud, to be held at Royal Grammar School.

This will focus on two particular aspects of the Holocaust which affected our region; both very different - the Kinder-transport, that influx of young refugees who arrived before the war as escapees from the Nazi tyranny and, the part a battalion of the DLI = 113 Light Anti Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery (DLI) TA played in the grim task of liberating Belsen.

This latter episode was the subject of a BBC TV drama-documentary earlier in the week.

Every so often a word or phrase worms its way into the national consciousness.

Newspaper journalists are not immune to this phenomenon, and indeed probably end up using stock phrases more than most people as a quick shorthand way of making a point.

One of my current favourites is "postcode lottery", a phrase that people use to describe pretty much any situation where one part of the country does things differently to somewhere else.

Every so often a word or phrase worms its way into the national consciousness.

Newspaper journalists are not immune to this phenomenon, and indeed probably end up using stock phrases more than most people as a quick shorthand way of making a point.

One of my current favourites is "postcode lottery", a phrase that people use to describe pretty much any situation where one part of the country does things differently to somewhere else.

How often do you wear your toothbrush handle out?

Well if you are like most people, you’ve never had your toothbrush long enough to find out.
Changing your toothbrush 4 times a year, as recommended by dentists, means that on average most people will get through around 280 toothbrushes in their life time.

About 95% of the toothbrush is made up of a perfectly reusable handle and yet we throw this away – madness.

I was really pleased to see the interview with People Tree founder, the inspirational Safia Minney, in this morning's edition of the Journal.

People Tree was one of the original fair trade fashion houses and Safia has done for fashion what the late great Anita Roddick did for beauty.