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Surely seeing the ruins of Pompeii, or Stonehenge, or maybe the Palace of Versailles is a life ambition for most people? However, chances are, you haven't seen as many of the world's historic monuments that you would like to. To play on this, Google have introduced a new initiative called the World Wonders Project.

It allows people to see 132 historic sites from 18 different countries, using Google StreetView. As well as being able to explore each site online, the project also includes 3D models, pictures and YouTube videos of the sites. Google are hoping that not only will it be a quick new way to see sites you're interested in, but that it will also act as a learning resource.

Whilst the sites may not be quite as impressive as they are in real life, it is quite interesting and certainly a worthy 10 minute distraction from revision. You can find out more about the project in the video below, or start exploring at www.google.com/worldwonders.

Séamas McSwiney is our guest film correspondent with decades of experience in film journalism, and work published in some top international publications. For the past fortnight he has been reporting for us from the Cannes film festival, and here he reveals the big winners. 

The cloud filled skies in the middle days of Cannes 2012 also coincided with some of the darkest films, three of which are already described here in this blog. Despite their "feel-bad" impact, their artistic quality was such that they finally ended up with awards at Sunday night's closing ceremony.

If you're in Britain, chances are that you've heard that the Queen is celebrating 60 years on the throne this weekend. As part of the massive four-day weekend Diamond Jubilee celebrations there are loads of events going on. Here we pick out some of the best for you to get involved in.

Séamas McSwiney is our guest film correspondent with decades of experience in film journalism, and work published in some top international publications. He is reporting from Cannes 2012, and today looks at four films from what is ofter an forgotten continent.

"It's a Cannes constant to comment on the absence of films from the African continent. Perhaps quality cinema production could even be considered a rough benchmark for economic development. This year there were films a plenty from South America and the Asian presence is now a constant both in terms of film production and audiences. China will be the new goldmine for revenue generated by the silver screen and by its digital offspring.

Still, there were four films flying in from four separate corners of the biggest continent: two from North Africa, Egypt and Morocco, dealing respectively with The Arab Spring and jihadi suicide bombers; and two from sub-Sahara, East and West, telling stories that again confront the dangers and indignities that deprivation will drive people to.

The latest UK university rankings were revealed this week, placing Cambridge in top spot for the second year running. Arch rival Oxford was placed second in the Guardian University Guide 2013 league table, whilst St Andrews in Scotland took third place.

The annual rankings are based on the quality of universities in a variety of different categories for full-time undergraduate students. The categories include:

• How much they spend per student
• Student to staff ratio
• Career prospects of graduates
• The ‘value-added' score between first and final year students
• Final year student satisfaction (based on results from the National Student Survey)

The Big Winners and Losers

Here is the full top ten universities for this year, with last year's position in brackets: