There is nothing much to report in terms of new projects, but I am currently working on a couple of things that I will be ready to announce early in the New Year. This includes a major relaunch of my website, which will have a really nifty (trans = stylish & clever) crypto-tutorial section, complete with interactive encryption and decryption tools.

Before continuing, I should say that whenever I use British-isms in this and future newsletters, I will explain their meaning in brackets. Apparently, the word 'chuffed' in my last newsletter caused some confusion to readers beyond British shores. It means 'pleased'.

I have spent part of the autumn (trans = fall) writing about the teacher crisis in British schools, which is probably mirrored in many other countries. The situation is particularly bad in mathematics and science, with many students being taught by unqualified teachers. I do not claim to know what the solution is to teacher recruitment and retention, but at least I acknowledge that there is a problem, which means that I am one step ahead of the Government. Click here for the article that I wrote on the subject for the Daily Telegraph. If you agree with my sentiments and you live in the UK, then you might want to send an email expressing your views to the Secretary of State Estelle Morris at: dfes.ministers@dfes.gsi.gov.uk.

And if you are looking for Christmas presents, then I would recommend some of the books published by GT Labs and Jim Ottaviani. These are excellent comic books based on the lives of scientists such as Richard Feynmann, Albert Einstein and Lise Meitner. A new comic book, "Fallout", has just been published, and you can find out details of this and Jim's other books at Jim's website.

That's all folks.

Toodle pip (trans = farewell),
Simon.

"Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house."
Jules-Henri Poincaré