Five things you need to know today
Dugdale warns against discrimination against women
Council have a new Twitter account just for you!
Take it Right Outside
Edinburgh Quartet
Fracking – is it all hot air or hot toxics?
Scotland risks locking out half the population from the high skilled jobs of the future, Kezia Dugdale will say later this morning.
Ms Dugdale will be speaking at an event hosted by the Royal Society of Chemistry at Dynamic Earth and she will highlight the lack of young women studying science, technology and engineering.
The Scottish Labour Leader will also highlight figures which show just 23% of university professors in Scotland are female:
“It’s welcome that here today there are prominent women representing the world of science. But sadly it’s the exception to the rule. Because in science and in academia in general, men continue to dominate.
“Just 23% of the professors at our universities are female. Think about that for a moment. Despite making up more than half the population, fewer than one quarter of our university professors are women.
“Fewer than one third of our university principals are women. Years of government failure to redress the gender balance has led us to this point. The institutional road blocks to women taking up these roles must be demolished.
“Progress has been made, but it isn’t enough. And if we look at the students of today we can see the problems continuing. We know that we need 147,000 engineers in Scotland by 2022.
“Yet just a tiny fraction of those studying engineering, science and technology, preparing for the jobs of the future, are women. Unless we can bring a lot more women into these subjects we risk locking half of the population out of the high skilled, high paying jobs of the future.
“To meet the challenges of the 21st century we need to invest for the long term. We need to give as many young people as possible the skills they need to make their way in the world.”
The City of Edinburgh Council launched its new dedicated customer service Twitter account @edinhelp only last week and already over 500 people are following on Twitter.
The Council has been helping residents on social media since 2009 with everything from missed bin collections to road safety. The main Council Twitter account @edinburgh_cc has grown to almost 50,000 followers and now receives on average over 2,300 messages per month.
Contacting the council through social media channels has become so popular that it prompted the council to think about the best way to help people to get the most from its social media accounts.
The new 24/7 service will handle customer questions, requests and complaints. All enquiries will be responded to as quickly as possible and if it can’t be answered in a tweet, a helpful solution or link will be provided.
As well as responding to enquiries the dedicated customer service channel will provide information on issues or delays to services in the city. The account will be updated with what’s going on and where.
Residents can refer to it and may save themselves a tweet or call if the council is already aware and has posted a public response. For example, an instance of fly-tipping that a response team has already been sent to or a power cut in an area of town that is being investigated.
Follow the council’s customer service account here.
The hidden dangers of second-hand smoke will be brought to life in a bid to urge parents to take smoking right outside, as a national tour hits Edinburgh today.
Today and tomorrow, shoppers at Asda Jewel will be invited into a living room which looks completely smoke-free, but then fills with computer-generated chemicals when viewed through a tablet to show how smoke lingers.
Through the screen, they will also be able to see the harmful effects these chemicals can have on a child’s lung health.
The 29-date tour, which will also visit Asda Livingston and Westside Plaza this week, is part of the Take it Right Outside campaign which aims to reduce the number of children who are exposed to second-hand smoke in the home, and drive home that the only way to ensure children are protected is to never smoke in the home or the car.
Advisers will be on hand to speak to parents and grandparents, highlighting that smoking at the back door or an open window isn’t enough, as the harmful chemicals drift back into the home and move from room to room for up to five hours after the cigarette has been put out.
The fabulous Edinburgh Quartet, one of Britain’s foremost chamber ensembles, will play at The Queen’s Hall (Clerk Street) tonight. As part of the Quartet’s new Intimate Voices series, the programme will feature Schubert String Quartet No 10 in E flat, Shostakovich String Quartet No 7 and Sibelius String Quartet ‘Voces intimae’, Op 56. Tickets cost £15/£12, students £5, children free, and are available from The Queen’s Hall Box Office in person, by calling 0131 668 2019 or online here (a transaction fee applies to phone and online bookings). Read more about the Intimate Voices project in The Edinburgh Reporter’s article here.
Fracking and threats to public health – is it all hot air or hot toxics? If you’d like to find out, come along to The Open Door, 420 Morningside Road, this morning, where Professor Andrew Watterson from the University of Stirling will explain all.
This talk is part of the Morningside Justice and Peace Group’s winter programme; the group exists to promote informed opinion on matters of concern to the community at large.
Meetings are held every Wednesday during the autumn and spring months from 10.30am to 11.30am; they are open to all and provide a view on a topic of national, international or local concern followed by questions and discussion.
The next meeting will be on November 18th, when the topic will be What is at stake at the Paris UN Conference on Climate Change?
To cover costs, a contribution of £1 is requested at each meeting.
For more information, please contact Barbara Darcy, group co-ordinator, at b.darcy20@gmail.com
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