Should 13 Year Olds Get The Pill?

Children, Society

There has been a lot of talk over the last few days in the UK about letting 13 year olds getting hold of the Pill over the counter from chemists without a prescription. Many groups are not happy about this and are calling for it not to happen.

So, do you think that this is a good idea? On the one hand it may mean that there are less teenage pregnancies as the girls will be protected when having sex. However, there is no escaping the fact that it is illegal for girls under the age of 16 to have sex.

But, if these girls are already having sex then shouldn’t they be able to get protection from becoming pregnant? If girls think that they cannot get hold of the Pill easily then they may not bother with contraception.

One thought that comes to mind is that although 13 sounds young for girls to be having sex, we must remember that for hundreds of years, girls were routinely married off at this kind of age and in some countries this was the norm. So they would have been having sex at a young age. In fact the country singer Loretta Lynn was married at the age of 13 as one example.

There are many contradictions in the legal system that seem strange in terms of what you can do at what age but there will always be arguments about what age girls should be legally allowed to have sex at. of course it is the parents that make the laws and they are unlikely to want their children to be sexually active at such an age.

But, if this did take place it would be interesting to see if this did chance the statistics on teenage pregnancies. Are the girls that are getting pregnant mature enough to go and get the pill for themselves or is it more down to a one-off moment of carelessness?

Buy Books In The UK

Internet, Shopping

If you are looking to buy books in the UK, and at a good price then you have a few options.  There are still a few high street shops selling books like Waterstones and Borders but overall book sellers are moving onto the internet where you can search for the best prices on books that you want.

The advantage of book stores is that you can browse through shelves of books until you find one that takes your fancy by reading the back cover etc. Book stores may also have special offers on 3 for 2 books etc that you can’t get online. Also if you need a book straight away then you can just pick one up and take it home.

However, if you are looking for a particular book and you know what you want, then you don’t necessarily need to go to a bookshop. The most popular place to buy books for years has been Amazon, and many people go there by default when looking for books as they know that they are a trusted retailer.

But, there are many more booksellers on the internet and quite often you can find one that will sell the book you are looking for, for less than you have to pay on Amazon. One of these cheaper book stores is Abe Books which source there books from many areas, including abroad. Just enter the ISBN of the book you are looking for and it will give you a selection of sellers to choose from.


AbeBooks.co.uk Book Sale

AbeBooks sells new, second-hand and collectible books. I recently looked for a technical book that was £19.79 on Amazon and I managed to get it for around £3 less on AbeBooks – it was a new book too so I was surprised that I could get it at such a low cost compared to the Amazon price.

Another Hosepipe Ban

Home & Garden,

Another Hosepipe Ban in the UK

It seems that more and more often the UK introduces hosepipe bans in various parts of the country to help save water. This year many people have been surprised by the introduction of a hosepipe ban once again as it has seemed like there has been a lot of rain recently. However, after two very dry winters it is the long term water stocks that are running dangerously low and this has led to low river water levels as well as low levels of water in the reservoirs around the country.

As from 5 April 2012 hosepipe bans were introduced by the following water authorities in the UK:

  • Thames Water
  • South East Water
  • Sutton and East Surrey Water Authority
  • Southern Water
  • Anglian Water
  • Veolia Central
  • Veolia South East

Fines For Using Hosepipes

Although it seems that it might be difficult to police, there will be fines in place of up to £1,000 for anyone who flouts the hosepipe ban. Some businesses, disabled people and sports fields that are used for national or international events are not included in the ban. This will help the Olympic venues for one thing.

Although it is unlikely that Water Authorities will send round employees to check if anyone is using hosepipes, people are being encouraged to use less water as a moral responsibility. There are plenty of ways to save water including the following:

  • Recycling any water that you do use – for example bath water can be used to water the garden
  • Taking baths instead of showers
  • Not running the tap while brushing your teeth
  • Installing water saving devices in the home

Get a Water Butt


If you have a garden that needs a lot of watering, or you are growing your own vegetables then one of the best ways to have the water that you need to use on your garden is to install a water butt. A water butt is a large plastic tank that collects rainwater that is diverted through the guttering system.

Water butts are pretty easy to install and the sooner you get one set up the more water you can accumulate during the rainier Spring months.

Water butts tend to come in two sizes – the smaller ones hold around 100 litres of water and the larger ones around 200 litres. A decent water butt will cost you around £50 and you may also want to have a stand so that you can easily access all of the water down to the bottom of the butt. Most water butts have a tap on that you can open to get the water out but you can also get a water butt pump to make it easier to distribute the water if you have a larger garden. See the water butt on the left and click through on the link to get lots more options on buying water butts.

 

Stop Pinterest Posting on Facebook

Social Networks & Online Communities,

So Pinterest seems to be the fastest growing social media site right now and it definitely has it’s own little niche that makes it stand out from the rest. But the truth is it is still in relatively early stages and there are some issues that need tweaking.

One issue is how to stop all of your Pinterest pins being posted on your facebook wall. When you first sign in to Pinterest with your facebook logon, it automatically starts posting to your wall. In order to stop it doing this you need to go to your facebook settings, then to Apps and then edit the Pinterest app. You can stop it posting or else set the posts so that only you can see them.

It may well be the case that you don’t want all of your facebook friends seeing what you are posting on Pinterest so this is a good way to stop them knowing everything that you are doing on there.

iPhone Tips for Beginners

Computers & Electronics, Internet, Lifestyles, Recreation, Social Networks & Online Communities, Technology

So You have a New iPhone!

iphone-tipsSo I am assuming that you have just got yourself an iPhone and with it a plan that comes with 3G coverage so that you can access the web wherever you are. These days the plans are very reasonable but if you don’t have web access then you can use the wireless features of the phone when you are in an area that has wireless coverage.

In that lovely new box there are a few goodies but one thing that there is not is an instruction booklet – I guess that Apple think that you can get all the information online in their help manuals but sometimes that just doesn’t cut it and even some basic things need a small about of explaining when you first start using it.

Firstly, I have to say I now love my iPhone and wouldn’t want to be without it, which is what I guess Apple want you to think! It has loads of great features and by downloading apps you can use it for more and more things. Anyway, here are a few basics to start you off.

How To Change The Sim Card

It sounds obvious but from experience I looked and looked for where the iPhone SIM card went and couldn’t find it! So in order to change the iPhone SIM card you will need the SIM card pin that came with your phone (it looks a bit like a paper clip). Use the pin end on this to poke into the hole at the top of the phone and the SIM card holder will pop out of the top of the phone. Whenever you need to open the SIM card holder you will need to use the pin.

Synching Your iPhone

Firstly, in order to synchronise your data with your computer you will need to have iTunes installed and also have an iTunes account. These are pretty simple to set up if you do not already have one.

You will need to link your iPhone to iTunes via a usb port on computer with the usb cable that was supplied with your iPhone and within the iTunes interface you can synchronise your contacts, music, calendar and pretty much everything else on your iPhone (except downloading photos).

Once you plug your phone in iTunes should start up automatically and it will start synching all the data on your phone. Don’t unplug your phone until it has finished.

Copying Photos from your iPhone

You can choose photo albums to synch up to your phone within the iTunes interface but it seems you can’t synch your photos down 🙁

If you want to copy your photos down from your iPhone to your computer then you basically need to do this in Window Explorer. Open the phone in explorer and copy them to your chosen directory.

However, this does not always work so one other way of doing it is to use Google’s Picasa tool to import the photos.

How To Change the Number of Times The iPhone Rings Before Voicemail Cuts In

When I first got my iPhone it would ring only 4 times and then go straight to voicemail which I thought was very annoying as more often than not I did not reach the phone before it stopped ringing. After much investigation, I found that they way to change the number of rings on your iPhone before going to voicemail was as follows:

Call *#61#

Take a note of the number that comnes through as ‘Forwards to’

Dial *61*/Forwards To/*11*n#

where n= no. of seconds that you want it to ring for before going to voicemail. After a bit of trial and error I set it to around 30 seconds to give me a chance to find the phone!

Battery Power

From my experience the battery on the iPhone lasts between 10 hours and two days but obviously it depends on how much you use it. You can recharge the battery with the USB cable either through your computer or with the power adapter for the USB cable that plugs into the mains. You can also buy many music systems to play your iPhone music through and these will charge your iPhone while they play.

How Do You Take a Screenshot with Your iPhone?

Well this is actually a really easy thing to do once you know how. All you have to do is to navigate to the page that you want a screenshot of, then you press down the power button at the top of the phone and at the same time you hit the round ‘home’ button on the bottom of the front screen.

This saves a shot of the screen to your camera roll where you can do whatever you like with it!