Four things you should know this morning

What nationality would Star Wars characters be in the real world?

Ahead of the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, scientists at The Data Lab in Edinburgh have analysed several hundred characters from the Star Wars films and associated series’ to determine from which language each name is most likely to have come.

Using a list of over 500 names and on each an n-gram model from artificial intelligence was performed.

The n-gram model, from the field known as natural language processing, first splits the name into a sequence of single, double, and triple character strings. For example, the name “Luke” decomposes into the strings “l”, “u”, “k”, “e”, “lu”, “uk”, “ke”, “luk”, and “uke”.

Utilising a piece of software called textcat, the frequency of the resulting strings is compared with those of dozens of language corpuses.

From this the software is able to calculate probabilities of a given name coming from each of the languages. The most likely language is noted for each character name.

So where would they have come from?

Space mania hits UK as Tim Peake blasts off for ISS

Major Tim Peake blasted off into orbit yesterday on board the Soyuz space capsule on his way to becoming the first British astronaut to join the crew of the International Space Station (ISS).

The Russian rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in front of the world’s media following weeks of preparation.

Images of the launch showed the trail of flames the rocket left in its wake as it sped up into the blue sky, before it became a tiny speck in the distance.

A view inside the capsule showed the astronauts in spacesuits as the rocket lifted off. Maj Peake could be identified by the Union flag on his sleeve. He smiled at the camera, waved and gave a thumbs up as they sat back in their seats for the trip into space.

The rocket blasted off from Launch Pad 1, the historic spot from which Yuri Gagarin launched to become the first man in space in April 1961.

What was his last Tweet?

Schoolgirl chops off locks to help cancer toddler

A plucky schoolgirl had her hair chopped in front of thousands at the weekend in a bid to raise money for a children’s cancer charity, after being inspired by the story of two-year-old Kai Laidlaw.

The toddler, from Leith, is battling leukaemia for the third time in his short life and little Farrah Robb wanted to do something to help.

After teaming up with CCLASP charity, the Liberton Primary School pupil decided to cut off her long hair, and donate it to the Little Princess Trust – while raising money for children with cancer at the same time.

Hairdresser Colin McAndrew neatly put the nine year-old’s hair into two plaits at the Hibs v Falkirk match on Saturday, then cut it on the pitch, for all to see.

According to Farrah’s mum, Samantha, she had around 16 inches cut in total, and her hair now sits on her shoulders.

Find out how you can help

New social enterprises add £1.7 billion to Scotland

Scotland is a world-leading nation when it comes to social enterprise, having a fairer and more inclusive way of doing business.

Over 200 new social enterprises are formed each year in Scotland, with over 5,000 currently in business. They provide over 112,400 jobs in Scotland and contribute approximately £1.7bn to the Scottish economy.

These statistics were unveiled by the first ever census of social enterprises, which has revealed that they are a thriving and growing business community.

Social Enterprise Scotland said it allowed them to have a clearer direction for the future, and a better indication of where to direct business support to make messages clearer when talking to the public, media and politicians.

60 per cent of these social enterprises have a woman as their most senior employee, with 68 per cent of them paying at least the Living Wage, if not more.

26 per cent of all social enterprises are found in Glasgow or Edinburgh, but surprisingly 22 per cent of them are located in the Highlands and Islands.

Find out more