National 5 maths past papers

An eco-friendly Amazon customer ordering recycled wrapping paper - only for it to arrive wrapped in plastic.  Mhairi Wood, from Aberdeenshire had planned to wrap all her Christmas presents in the biodegradable brown paper in a bid to reduce her carbon footprint. But she was left shocked when her purchase arrived wrapped in grey plastic.  Mhairi Wood from Aberdeenshire had planned to wrap all her Christmas presents in the biodegradable brown paper in a bid to reduce her carbon footprint. But she was left shocked when her purchase arrived wrapped in grey plastic (pictured above) Mhairi Wood from Aberdeenshire The paper was then put inside a large cardboard box filled with reams of protective cardboard paper for extra protection.  Mhairi shared a photograph of all the packaging on Facebook writing: 'Poor show Amazon'.  She added: 'Ordered a roll of recycled brown paper to be eco friendly at Xmas for wrapping presents and this is how I receive it.'  One Facebook … [Read more...] about Eco-friendly Amazon customer orders recycled Christmas wrapping paper only for it to arrive wrapped in PLASTIC

Courtney Lawes used to dream of winning Grand Slams — but at Wimbledon rather than Twickenham. The England star is in the mix to start against visitors France in round two of the Six Nations on Sunday, with Maro Itoje out for at least two matches with knee-ligament damage suffered in Saturday's win over Ireland. Lawes is the most experienced forward available to head coach Eddie Jones — his next cap will be his 70th, and only three England locks have won more. For a decade he has made brutal hits, yet he started out smashing tennis balls rather than opponents on the rugby pitch. “Growing up, I didn’t have a set plan— other than to play sport,” said Lawes, who turns 30 on February 23 — the day England play Wales in Cardiff. “I loved football and tennis, which I played all the time. Tennis gave me good hand-eye co-ordination and helped me in other ways — you’re on your own. You can’t rely on anyone else to do it for … [Read more...] about Six Nations 2019: England’s Courtney Lawes reveals surprising past as TENNIS player

Sigrid Nunez has won the top prize at the prestigious National Book Awards in New York on Wednesday night, winning the fiction category for her seventh novel, The Friend, about a woman grieving the loss of her beloved literary mentor as she inherits his mourning dog: a 180-pound Great Dane. Nunez beat Jamel Brinkley’s short story collection A Lucky Man; Florida by Lauren Groff; Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson; and The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. Accepting the award, she quoted the British writer Alan Bennett, who said: “For a writer, nothing is ever quite as bad as it is for other people because, however dreadful, it may be of use.” Nunez continued: “I became a writer not because I was seeking community but rather because I thought it was something I could do alone, and hidden, in the privacy of my own room. How lucky to have discovered that writing books made the miraculous possible: to be removed from the world, and to be a part of the … [Read more...] about National Book Awards: Sigrid Nunez wins fiction prize as Isabel Allende is honoured

What happens when a highly respected professional body undertakes serious and rigorous research into race and racism in its industry? Then, in the light of depressing findings, the researchers call upon their profession, institutions and colleagues to confront “persistent inequalities in our habits and practices”? The dismal answer is that both the researchers and their findings are served up, by parts of the press, as disapproval fodder for the “world’s gone mad”, “had enough of experts” demographic; the hard core of the unreality-based community. The report, Race, Ethnicity & Equality in UK History, is the work of the Royal Historical Society (RHS). Based on surveys and interviews with more than 700 UK historians, it examines what is taught in the history departments of our universities and who does the teaching. It paints a bleak but hardly unexpected picture, one that some newspapers elected to ignore in favour of a handful of cherries … [Read more...] about We risk losing slices of our past if we don’t root out racism in our universities

My father, John Stanley Ford, was the first black software engineer in America, hired by IBM in 1946. In his day, there were no unions, and IBM’s founder, Thomas J Watson, sought to keep it that way. Watson offered healthcare, paid college tuition and access to IBM country clubs – all of which helped thrill most employees into never questioning whether they should organize for greater rights, like freedom from workplace discrimination. When I started as a software engineer at the company a quarter-century later, employees still enjoyed healthcare and country clubs but had very few rights. It was IBM’s black workers who first fought to change this. Last week Google fired four employees who had been organizing their fellow workers to demand greater equality and an end to the company’s work on inhumane government and military projects. This week, the workers announced they are suing the company. This could be a turning point in the story of the … [Read more...] about Google’s anti-worker actions evoke IBM’s racist past