Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Saturday, January 16, 2021
Historic ice cream parlour in Mumbles set to be torn down and replaced with bigger premises
A Swansea ice cream parlour is preparing for a new chapter in its history as it has lodged plans to demolish its current base and build a bigger one in its place.
Forte's Ice Cream parlour is synonymous with Mumbles, first set up in 1936,
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Revamped ‘slave’ statues check in again at hotel
The removal of statues from outside a hotel was a “defacement” of “one of the most important and culturally significant buildings in the capital,” Dublin city council was told.
Four statues were returned to the front of the Shelbourne Hotel last month,
Friday, June 1, 2012
History of CNN
The Cable News Network was founded in 1980 by Ted Turner and 25 other original members,who invested $20 million into the network. Upon its launch, CNN was the first station to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television network in the United States.While the news network has numerous affiliates, CNN primarily broadcasts from its headquarters at the CNN Center in Atlanta, the Time Warner Center in New York City, and studios in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. CNN is owned by parent company Time Warner, and the U.S. news network is a division of the Turner Broadcasting System.
Early history (1980–1989)
Launch
CNN's first broadcast with David Walker and Lois Hart on June 1, 1980.
The Cable News Network was launched at 5:00 p.m. EST on Sunday June 1, 1980 by 25 original staff members. It first had an introduction by Ted Turner, who announced:
"We won't be signing off until the world ends. We'll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event... and when the end of the world comes, we'll play 'Nearer, My God, to Thee' before we sign off."
Then the husband and wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart anchored the first newscast.Among the first segments was an interview of then-President Jimmy Carter by Daniel Schorr.
Since its debut, CNN has expanded its reach to a number of cable and satellite television networks, several web sites, specialized closed-circuit networks (such as CNN Airport Network), and a radio network. The network has 36 bureaus (10 domestic, 26 international), more than 900 affiliated local stations, and several regional and foreign-language networks around the world. The network's success made a bona-fide mogul of founder Ted Turner and set the stage for the Time Warner conglomerate's eventual acquisition of Turner Broadcasting.
After five years, CNN outgrew its home, a former country club on the outskirts of Midtown, Atlanta. Turner purchased the Omni International from developer Tom Cousins and moved CNN there. The complex was rechristened the CNN Center. As Omni International, the complex had never succeeded. Cousins sold it to Turner along with the Atlanta Hawks. CNN moved into the end of the tower that once housed The World of Sid and Marty Krofft. Turner was instrumental in the revival of Atlanta's downtown.
Original shows
Moneyline
Moneyline premiered in 1980 of and was CNN's main financial show for over 20 years. As the show moved more towards general news and economic and political commentary, it was renamed Lou Dobbs Moneyline and then Lou Dobbs Tonight.
Evans, Novak, Hunt & Shields
Evans and Novak was created in 1980, with Rowland Evans and conservative Robert Novak hosted their own TV news show and it became one of the cable network's best-watched discussion programs. Only a short time after, Al Hunt and Mark Shields joined the show, being renamed Evans, Novak, Hunt & Shields.
Crossfire
In June 1982, a political debate, late night television show, Crossfire, was launched and was hosted by liberal Tom Braden and conservative Pat Buchanan. The idea of it was when the two of them debated on the a daily radio show in 1978. The show soon became popular and was elevated to prime time. In 1985 Buchanan left the show for a job as communications director in the Ronald Reagan White House. His replacement was conservative columnist Robert Novak, who already had a talk show on CNN and was at the time also a regular on The McLaughlin Group. In 1987, Buchanan returned to the show, replacing Novak. In 1989, Braden was replaced by Michael Kinsley, a liberal columnist for Time magazine, and magazine editor for The New Republic.
Larry King Live
In June 1985, a primetime interview TV show was launched and was hosted by Larry King. Every night on Larry King Live, King interviews one or more prominent individuals, mainly celebrities, politicians, and businesspeople. The show is currently the highest rated and longest running TV show on CNN.It was the highest rated news show on television until 2001, when the O'Reilly Factor surpassed him and maintained at the top ever since.
Unlike many interviewers, Larry King has a direct, non-confrontational approach. His interview style is characteristically frank, but with occasional bursts of irreverence and humor. His approach attracts some guests who would not otherwise appear. King, who is known for his general lack of pre-interview preparation, once bragged that he never pre-reads the books of authors who appear on his show. Critics have claimed that Larry King asks "soft" questions in comparison to other interviewers, which allows him to reach guests who would be averse to interviewing on "tough" talk shows.
On February 24, 1987, King suffered a major heart attack and then had quintuple-bypass surgery. It was a life-altering event as previously, smoking was one of his trademarks and he was unashamed of his addiction. King was a three-pack-a-day smoker and kept a lit cigarette during his interview so he would not have to take time to light up during breaks. He now encourages curbing smoking to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Variety shows
* Sports Tonight (CNN) 1980–2001
* People in the News
* Style with Elsa Klensch 1980–2000
* Business Morning
* CNN Daybreak 1980–2005
Coverage
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
On January 28, 1986, CNN was the only network to have live coverage of the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger to the public. However, NASA TV provided the live coverage to schools nationwide. The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after lift-off. Seven astronauts, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, were killed in the disaster.
Then President Ronald Reagan postponed the State of the Union Address that evening. He addressed the nation in the time of tragedy and grief from the Oval Office. On January 31, 1986 a, two days after the tragedy, CNN had live coverage of the memorial service for the Challenger crew members. The families, friends and colleagues were there at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Baby Jessica rescue
On October 14, 1987, an eighteen-month-old toddler named Jessica McClure fell down a well in Midland, Texas. CNN was quickly on the spot, and the event helped make their name. The New York Times ran a retrospective article in 1995 on the impact of live video news. "If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a moving picture is worth many times that, and a live moving picture makes an emotional connection that goes deeper than logic and lasts well beyond the actual event. This was before correspondents reported live from the enemy capital while American bombs were falling. Before Saddam Hussein held a surreal press conference with a few of the hundreds of Americans he was holding hostage. Before the nation watched, riveted but powerless, as Los Angeles was looted and burned. Before O. J. Simpson took a slow ride in a white Bronco, and before everyone close to his case had an agent and a book contract. This was uncharted territory just a short time ago."
Leadership under Tom Johnson (1990–2000)
Former 13 year publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Tom Johnson, was named CNN President.
Coverage of the Gulf War
The first Persian Gulf War in 1991 was a watershed event for CNN that catapulted the network past the "big three" American networks for the first time in its history, largely due to an unprecedented, historical scoop: CNN was the only news outlet with the ability to communicate from inside Iraq during the initial hours of the American bombing campaign, with live reports from the al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad by reporters Bernard Shaw, John Holliman, and Peter Arnett.
Operation Desert Storm as captured live on a CNN night vision camera with reporters narrating.
The moment when bombing began was announced on CNN by Bernard Shaw on January 16, 1991 as follows:
“ This is Bernie Shaw. Something is happening outside.... Peter Arnett, join me here. Let’s describe to our viewers what we’re seeing...The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated.... We’re seeing bright flashes going off all over the sky. ”
The Gulf War experience brought CNN some much sought-after legitimacy and made household names of previously obscure, low-paid reporters. Many of these reporters now comprise CNN's "old guard." Bernard Shaw became CNN's chief anchor until his retirement in 2001. Others include then-Pentagon correspondent Wolf Blitzer (now host of The Situation Room) and international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. Amanpour's presence in Iraq was caricatured by actress Nora Dunn as the ruthless reporter "Adriana Cruz" in the film Three Kings (1999). Time Warner later produced a television movie, Live from Baghdad, about the network's coverage of the first Gulf War, which aired on HBO.
CNN was criticized for excessively pushing 'human interest' stories and avoiding depictions of violent images; the result of all this being an alleged 'propagandistic' presentation of news. A report by FAIR quotes an unnamed CNN reporter as describing "the 'sweet beautiful sight' of bombers taking off from Saudi Arabia."
The CNN effect
Coverage of the first Gulf War and other crises of the early 1990s (particularly the infamous Battle of Mogadishu) led officials at the Pentagon to coin the term "the CNN effect" to describe the perceived impact of real time, 24-hour news coverage on the decision-making processes of the American government.
John Kiesewetter explained:
"CNN has changed news. Before CNN, events were reported in two cycles, for morning and evening newspapers and newscasts. Now news knows no cycle. When a plane has crashed, or shots are fired in school, we expect to see it immediately on all-news channels. We don't depend on the Big Three broadcast networks. The turning point point came shortly after CNN's 10th birthday, when Bernard Shaw, Peter Arnett and John Holliman provided play-by-play of the 1991 Gulf War from a Baghdad hotel. The Gulf war proved how CNN had changed the world. U.S. military leaders chose their words carefully during televised press briefings, knowing that Sadam Hussein was watching CNN, too."
Shows created
Both Sides with Jesse Jackson
Both Sides with Jesse Jackson was a political talk show, hosted by civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate Jesse Jackson, that aired on Sundays. Each program began with a short taped report on the topic by CNN Correspondent John Bisney. The show ran from 1992 to 2000.
Capital Gang
Capital Gang is one of cable news' longest running programs, focusing on discussion of the political news of the week. The original panelists were Pat Buchanan, Al Hunt, Mark Shields, and Robert Novak. When Buchanan left the network to run for president, Margaret Warner, Mona Charen, and later Margaret Carlson and Kate O'Beirne became regular panelists. The Capital Gang aired Saturday nights at 7 p.m. ET from 1988 to 2005.
Burden of Proof
Burden of Proof was a show that discussed legal issues of the day, hosted by Greta Van Susteren and Roger Cossack. It was started in 1995 and was canceled in 2001.
TalkBack Live
TalkBack Live was a talk show on CNN that lasted from 1994 until 2003. It aired from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time and was hosted at various times by Susan Rook, Bobbie Battista, Karyn Bryant and Arthel Neville.
End of the monopoly
In 1996, two major US news networks were created: MSNBC and Fox News. Although CNN's ratings were #1 and Larry King Live was still the most watched news show.
Although Johnson still was leading the network, Rick Kaplan served as president of CNN from 1997 to 2000. He is a personal friend of Bill Clinton, who was President of the United States during Kaplan's tenure. According to the Media Research Center, Kaplan's friendship, and political affinity, with Clinton affected the way the network covered the Monica Lewinsky scandal: "As the Lewinsky scandal broke, Kaplan leapt into action at CNN with two-hour specials attacking any and all Clinton critics. The programs included 'Media Madness,' which asked 'what the hell are you people doing' probing Bill Clinton’s sex life?; and 'Investigating the Investigator,' which described Ken Starr as 'suspect' over his 'religious and Republican roots.'"Conservative commentator John Fund wrote that "During Mr. Kaplan's CNN tenure, there were no obvious examples of his coming to Mr. Clinton's aid," but that CNN's "executives create a perception problem when they hobnob with politicians."
In 1998, CNN, in partnership with corporate sister Time magazine, ran a report that Operation Tailwind in 1970 in Vietnam included use of Sarin gas to kill a group of defectors from the United States military. The Pentagon denied the story. Skeptics deemed it improbable that such an extraordinary and risky atrocity could have gone unnoticed at the height of the Vietnam War's unpopularity. CNN, after a two-week inquiry, issued a retraction.. The story's producers were summarily fired, and one of them has been highly critical of CNN's handling of the story, saying that CNN bowed to pressure from high-ranking officials to kill the story.
Post Tom Johnson (2001–2003)
In 2000 and 2001, CNN hired many key people such as Anderson Cooper, Aaron Brown, Paula Zahn, and (re-hiring) Lou Dobbs. Also the leadership of the network changed. Kaplan left CNN in 2000, and moreover Tom Johnson retired in 2001 from head of CNN after 10 years. Directly after his retirement lead to the network decline.
New shows
NewsNight with Aaron Brown
Created in 2001, NewsNight with Aaron Brown focused on investigative journalism and had a strong emphasis on interviews. It included segments such as The Whip (which quickly previewed segments from four reporters at large), On The Rise, and Segment 7. The Morning Papers segment, known as The Rooster, featured a brief preview of compelling or interesting headlines from the next day's newspapers around the world. The segment concluded with the weather forecast in Chicago as provided in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Paula Zahn Now
The primetime show before Larry King Live, Paula Zahn Now was never very popular. It competed against the O'Reilly Factor which had the best ratings on cable news.
Connie Chung Tonight
Created in 2002, Connie Chung Tonight was a short lived show that was canceled a year later. It was hosted by Connie Chung.
The Point w/Greta Van Susteran
Although Van Susteran was on CNN for over a decade, she got her own primetime show in 2001, but The Point w/Greta Van Susteran was canceled after one year.
The Spin Room
A debate show at the 10:30 p.m. slot, hosted by Tucker Carlson and Bill Press, The Spin Room was canceled after a few months to be replaced by Greenfield's show.
Greenfield at Large
Created in 2001 and hosted by Jeff Greenfield, Greenfield at Large was also short lived. It took the 10:30 p.m. slot.
Prime time lineup in 2003
These schedule till 2005, since 'post' Iraq War coverage
Time Name Host
6 p.m. Lou Dobbs Tonight Lou Dobbs
7 p.m. Anderson Cooper 360° Anderson Cooper
8 p.m. Paula Zahn Now Paula Zahn
9 p.m. Larry King Live Larry King
10 p.m. NewsNight Aaron Brown
Coverage
9/11 attacks
CNN breaking the news about the September 11 attacks in 2001.
CNN was the first network to break the news of the September 11 attacks in 2001. Anchor Carol Lin was on the air to deliver the first public report of the event. She broke into a commercial at 8:49 a.m. ET and said:
“ This just in. You are looking at obviously a very disturbing live shot there. That is the World Trade Center, and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. CNN Center right now is just beginning to work on this story, obviously calling our sources and trying to figure out exactly what happened, but clearly something relatively devastating happening this morning there on the south end of the island of Manhattan. That is once again, a picture of one of the towers of the World Trade Center. ”
Daryn Kagan and Leon Harris were live on the air just after 9 a.m. ET as the second plane hit the World Trade Center and through an interview with CNN correspondent David Ensor, reported the news that U.S. officials determined "that this is a terrorist act." Later, Aaron Brown anchored through the day and night as the attacks unfolded. Brown had just come to CNN from ABC to be the Breaking News anchor.
Sean Murtagh, CNN vice-president for finance & administration, was the first network employee on the air in New York.
September 11, 2001 was Paula Zahn's first day as a CNN reporter. She mentioned this as a guest clue presenter on a 2005 episode of Jeopardy!.
Amongst the criticisms levied against CNN, as well as the other major US news channels, is the charge that CNN took a lenient approach to the Bush administration, particularly after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. At the 2002 Newsworld Asia conference held in Singapore, the executive vice-president and general manager of CNN International, was quoted as saying: "Anyone who claims the US media didn’t censor itself is kidding you. It wasn’t a matter of government pressure but a reluctance to criticize anything in a war that was obviously supported by the vast majority of the people. And this isn’t just a CNN issue — every journalist who was in any way involved in 9/11 is partly responsible."
Iraq War
In April 2003, Eason Jordan, CNN's chief news executive, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times stating that he had lobbied the Iraqi government for 12 years in order to maintain a CNN presence in Iraq. He also admitted to withholding what would be considered newsworthy information of the government's atrocities, citing fears that releasing news would potentially endanger the lives of Iraqis working for CNN in Baghdad, some of whom had already been subject to beatings and torture. Critics take particularly strong exception to the handling of the Bush administration's rhetoric leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. CNN’s own veteran reporter Christiane Amanpour characterized the behavior of the news media as "self-muzzling" and as "cheerleaders for the Bush war drive against Iraq". An editorial in the German publication Süddeutsche Zeitung compared CNN war coverage to "live coverage of the Super Bowl", and the Qatar based Al Jazeera news network has criticized CNN for portraying U.S. soldiers as heroes.
Remember nick name for Godaddy.com www.ez2.me
Tell your friends about Easy To Me,
Go Daddy,s Approved affiliate
Next time for Go Daddy: Easy to you just www.ez2.me
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Tottenham: echoes of a history not forgotten as rioting returns
Clashes between police and rioters are taking place in Enfield Town this evening (Sunday), indicating that civic unrest is spreading after violent disorder in Tottenham last night.
Reports from the scene say up to 30 people, many of them young and wearing hooded clothes, have been pushed back from Enfield Town centre by police during a confrontation.
A police car was attacked and badly damaged, while shops came under attack from bricks and slabs of concrete, say as-yet unconfirmed eye-witness reports.
A strong police presence, including the riot squad clad in black, is bidding to protect the town centre from the mob.
Enfield borough borders Haringey, where rioting and looting took place last night. Enfield Town centre is easily accessible by train from Tottenham.
The allegations and counter-allegations of teenagers and the authorities about heavy-handed or incompetent policing are also reminiscent of 30 years ago.
The sequence of events in Tottenham at the weekend has many echoes of the Toxteth riots in Liverpool of 1981, as well as unrest in Tottenham itself in 1985 and other incidents of unrest that decade: a local flashpoint in a deprived urban area, the rapid escalation of a local protest into mayhem as others pile into the area – and long summer nights.
The television producer and commentator David Akinsanya was in Tottenham in the early hours of Sunday morning. He also covered some of the 1980s riots as a reporter. He said: "There are and there aren't similarities between what happened and earlier riots. In those days as a black youth you could be walking down the street, the police would bundle you into a van and nobody would see you for three days. That doesn't happen now. The black community is asking the police to get on top of gun crime, that's another change.
"But there are still many issues about policing in the area, and there are still good kids walking around Tottenham with their hoods up, trying to hide themselves away because they get endless grief from the police."
He added: "The other thing that's the same is the weather. If it had poured down they would all have gone home. We were actually saying earlier, before we knew anything about what was happening, that it was a nice night for a riot."
At least the trouble in Tottenham has not, so far, approached the scale of the worst incidents of the 1980s when thousands were injured, thousands more arrested and millions of pounds worth of damage caused.
In 1981 Toxteth saw some of the worst rioting in Britain. It began when police pursued a man into the area, wrongly suspecting that he had stolen a motorbike. A second man, Leroy Cooper, a photography student who had been at a youth club, intervened and was in turn arrested for assault. That night police were attacked by youths with petrol bombs and paving stones, and in the days and nights that followed more than 500 people were arrested in pitched battles, 470 police officers were injured and 70 buildings were burned down or demolished, including the 150-year-old Raquet Club, a survivor from the district's affluent Victorian heyday, and the famous Rialto Ballroom where the Beatles had played.
After four nights of violence the city's Protestant and Catholic bishops, David Shephard and Derek Worlock, united to appeal for peace and the archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, expressed concern. On 8 July the home secretary William Whitelaw agreed to a request from the Liverpool chief constable that 25 rounds of CS gas should be fired into the crowd by police, its first use on the UK mainland.
Weeks later the battles were over but trouble was still flaring up. On 28 July – the night before the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana – David Moore, who had a bad limp from an earlier car accident, was walking home from visiting friends in Toxteth. He was unable to move fast enough to get out of the way of a police car speeding across waste ground to break up a group of youths. He was hit, and died. More violence on the streets followed. After an investigation by another police force two officers were charged with manslaughter the year after, but acquitted.
Cooper pleaded guilty on legal advice and spent nine months in borstal. This summer he told the Liverpool Daily Post that when he left borstal the area still looked like a war zone. "The riot was a symptom of there being something really wrong with our society," he said. "We smashed our own community up, we destroyed our own homes. There had to be something wrong."
Earlier in 1981 in Brixton, where trouble was sparked when police stopped a young black man who been stabbed but who others thought was being arrested, more than 300 police and civilians were injured. Scores of vehicles and 83 buildings were burned, damaged or looted.
In Handsworth, Birmingham, in 1985, where there had also been trouble in 1981 and would be again in 1991 and 2005, two days and nights of looting and arson followed the arrest of a man. Two brothers died as the post office they ran went up in flames, 35 people were injured and more than 40 shops were destroyed or looted. The local artist and photographer Pogus Caesar told the BBC in 2010, when his images of the riots were exhibited to mark the anniversary: "The scars of 1985 will never heal completely but people of Handsworth are strong, they are resilient. The candles are burning slowly but the flame is bright."
And of course there was Tottenham. In October 1985 the Broadwater Farm estate was the scene of one of the most notorious and chilling incidents, when PC Keith Blakelock was murdered in rioting that followed the death of a local woman, Cynthia Jarrett, who had collapsed during a police raid on her home after her son was arrested. Three local men including Winston Silcott were jailed for the murder but cleared on appeal four years later. Two officers were later cleared at the Old Bailey of fabricating evidence.
In Liverpool 30 years after the riots people still feel aftershocks of the nine nights of street fights, arson, vandalism and looting. The anniversary has been marked by a book and an exhibition at the museum of Liverpool.
The riots led to a reappraisal of policing in black communities, race relations policy in general and the urgent need for regeneration in Britain's post-industrial rundown inner cities.
Lord Gifford's report found that racial discrimination had been "uniquely horrific" in Liverpool. Lord Scarman's report, after the Brixton riots, urged positive discrimination to tackle the problems facing the black community.
Twenty years later, in 2001, many of the same points were made again in official reports on summer riots in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley. The Cantle report, commissioned by the Home Office, found that many lived "parallel lives", never mixing with people from different backgrounds.
It also warned that some regeneration schemes had actually made the situation worse, forcing different communities to compete against each other, breeding resentment and anger.
Riots of the 1980s
• St Pauls, Bristol, April 1980: Sparked by a police raid on the Black and White Café. In the day and night of rioting there were 130 arrests, 19 police were injured, and fire engines and 12 police cars were hit
• Brixton, London, April 1981: People allegedly believed a stabbed youth died through police brutality. Over two nights almost 150 buildings and more than 100 vehicles were damaged. At least 65 citizens and 299 police were injured. The damage was put at £7.5m
• Toxteth, Liverpool, July 1981: Began with the arrest of Leroy Cooper, 20. Over nine days in which CS gas was used by police for the first time on the UK mainland, a man died, knocked down by a police vehicle, 500 people were arrested, 468 police were hurt
• Handsworth, September 1985: Sparked by another arrest. Among the casualties, the brothers Kassamali Moledina and Amirali died in their post office, which burned, 35 others were hurt
• Broadwater Farm, Tottenham, October 1985: Began after the death of Cynthia Jarrett, 49, in a police raid. A small rally escalated into violence. In the evening PC Keith Blakelock was hacked to death at the Farm. Three local men were jailed for his murder, but cleared on appeal in 1991, after evidence that showed police notes had been altered.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
New National Museum of Scotland unveiled after £47m revamp
After a wait of more than three years, the National Museum of Scotland will finally reopen its doors tomorrow after a £47 million transformation.
While the unmistakable Grand Gallery has been preserved, many aspects of the Victorian building have been completely reconfigured, and the exhibits comprehensively overhauled.
David Forsyth, senior curator at National Museums Scotland, talked us through the changes.
Part of the problem with the original building, which is widely recognised as one of the UK's finest Victorian public spaces, is that it was extended, chopped and changed so many times over the last 150 years that it became totally dysfunctional. A stunning Assyrian relief collected by obstetrician James Young Simpson, a pioneer of chloroform, was obscured for years by the museum shop.
Not that many would have seen it anyway as only 10% of visitors to the new part of the museum, dating from 1998, ever ventured into the old section. And many of those who did got lost.
The new galleries show more than 8,000 objects, with around 80% going on display for the first time in many years.
The idea at the centre of the museum is that visitors feel as though they are walking through an encyclopaedia.
There are stuffed animals, none better known than the two pandas – Ching Ching, who died at London Zoo in 1985, and another which was used as a rug until the 1930s. But these old favourites have been displayed in a new, innovative that curators say is unlike any other museum.
The museum also celebrates Scottish invention and achievement, not least that of John Logie Baird – the world's oldest surviving colour television is there – and Alexander Fleming. In a case containing his numerous medals and gongs is the moulded penicillin he rather bashfully gave back to those who had given him awards.
The first previews took place on Wednesday with the skeleton and antlers of an ancient deer being the last, curators hope, installation headache. Some visitors may be disappointed to see the removal of the fish ponds, installed in the 1960s, but museum staff believed they were only popular because they contained moving parts.
Perhaps the most striking of the 16 new spaces is the grand gallery, which contains the UK's single biggest museum installation. Called the Window on the World, it is a true cabinet of curiosities with more that 800 objects, including a Tay Bridge girder and a 1930s gyrocopter, displayed up to 18 metres high.
Add to that Dolly the sheep and a bionic hand made from Meccano, and a Quagga (now extinct) and and you have a collection that is diverse to say the least.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Harold Camping end of world
Harold Egbert Camping (born July 19, 1921) is a Christian radio broadcaster and president of Family Radio, a California-based religious broadcasting network that spans more than 150 outlets in the United States of America as well as a website.
Camping's trademarks include his deep, sonorous voice coupled with a slow cadence. He has also used Bible-based numerology to predict dates for the end of the world. His most recent end times prediction was that the Rapture would occur on May 21, 2011 and that God would subsequently completely destroy the Earth and the universe five months later on October 21. He had previously predicted that the Rapture would occur in September 1994. Both of these predictions have been proven incorrect by the continued existence and sustainment of Earth's Human population.
In 1970, Camping published Biblical Calendar of History , in which he dated the Creation of the world to the year 11,013 BC and the Flood to 4990 BC. This was in contrast to Bishop James Ussher's famous chronology, which placed creation at 4004 BC and the Flood at 2348 BC. Camping argued that Ussher's dates "agree neither with the Biblical nor the secular evidence" and thus Ussher's methodology was flawed.
Camping surmised that word in the Old Testament scriptures "begat" did not necessarily imply an immediate father-son relationship, as had been assumed by Ussher and others who hadn't fully studied the biblical timeline according to incomplete information. Camping noted the use of the phrase "called his name" (Hebrew qara shem), found three times in Genesis 4-5, which he characterized as a "clue phrase" to indicate an immediate father-son relationship. Despite the fact that this "clue phrase" does not occur regarding Noah naming Shem, Camping maintains that there is enough evidence to otherwise conclude that they did in fact have an immediate father-son relationship
He also points out the use of qara shem in Isaiah 7:14, where we are told, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Camping assumes that since qara shem implies an immediate father-son relationship (e.g., Adam-Seth, Seth-Enosh and Lamech-Noah), all other relationships between the Antediluvian patriarchs (except Noah-Shem) are of ancestors and their distant descendants.
That is, when one patriarch died, the next one who is mentioned was not his son but was actually a distant multi-great grandson who was born in that same year, thus Camping's concept of the "reference patriarch," i.e., various events are referenced to a specific year of a particular patriarch's life as a means of keeping an accurate chronological record (in much the same way we reference historical events by year to the birth of Christ). Despite the fact that there is no evidence that any ancient civilization kept track of time in this way,Camping uses this concept as the backbone of his chronological view of Biblical history.
Friday, May 6, 2011
London Transport Museum
(England Twitter)-London Transport Museum, or LT Museum based in Covent Garden, London, seeks to conserve and explain the transport heritage of Britain's capital city. The majority of the museum's exhibits originated in the collection of London Transport, but, since the creation of Transport for London (TfL) in 2000, the remit of the museum has expanded to cover all aspects of transportation in the city.
The museum operates from two sites within London. The main site in Covent Garden uses the name of its parent institution, sometimes suffixed by Covent Garden, and is open to the public every day, having recently reopened following a two year refurbishment. The other site, located in Acton, is known as the London Transport Museum Depot and is principally a storage site that is open on regular visitor days throughout the year.
The museum was briefly re-named London's Transport Museum to reflect its coverage of topics beyond London Transport, but it reverted to its previous name in 2007 to coincide with the reopening of the Covent Garden site.
Collection
The first parts of the collection were brought together at the beginning of the 20th century by the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) when it began to preserve buses being retired from service. After the LGOC was taken over by the London Electric Railway (LER), the collection was expanded to include rail vehicles. It continued to expand after the LER became part of the London Passenger Transport Board in the 1930s and as the organization passed through various successor bodies up to TfL, London's current transport authority.
The collection has had a number of homes. It was housed as part of the Museum of British Transport at a disused tram depot in Clapham High Street (now a supermarket) from 1963 to 1972, and then at Syon Park in Brentford from 1973 to 1977, before being moved to Covent Garden in 1980. Most of the other exhibits moved to York on formation of the National Railway Museum in 1975.
Museum (Covent Garden)
The museum's main facility is located in a Victorian iron and glass building that originally formed part of the Covent Garden vegetable, fruit and flower market. It was designed as a dedicated flower market by William Rogers in 1871 and is located between Russell Street, Tavistock Street, Wellington Street and the east side of the former market square. The market moved out in 1971, and the building was first occupied by the London Transport Museum in 1980. Previously the collection had been located at Syon Park since 1973 and before that had formed part of the British Transport Museum at Clapham.
Depot (Acton)
The Museum Depot is located in Acton, West London, and was opened in October 1999. The depot holds the majority of the Museum's collections which are not on display in the main museum in Covent Garden, is the base for the museum's curators and conservators, and is used for the display of items too large to be accommodated in the main facility.
The depot provides 6,000 square metres of storage space in secure, environmentally controlled conditions and houses over 370,000 items of all types, including many original works of art used for the Museum's collections of posters, signs, models, photographs, engineering drawings and uniforms. The building has both road access and a rail connection to the London Underground network, which allows the storage and display of significant numbers of buses, trams, trolleybuses, rail rolling stock and other vehicles
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Literature and popular culture
(England Twitter)-In The Reeve's Tale from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, the two main characters are students at Soler Halle. It is believed that this refers to King's Hall, which is now part of Trinity College.
In Gulliver's Travels (1726 novel) by Jonathan Swift, the hero and narrator, Lemuel Gulliver, is a graduate of Emmanuel College.
In Tristram Shandy (1767 novel) by Lawrence Sterne, the title character is, like Sterne himself, a graduate of Jesus College.
In The Prelude (1805 poem) by William Wordsworth, the entire third chapter is based on the poet's time at Cambridge.
In Pride and Prejudice (1813 novel) by Jane Austen, both Mr Darcy and Mr Wickham, the primary antagonist, are Cambridge graduates.
In Memoriam A.H.H. (1849 poem) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson is a requiem written in memory of the poet's Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam. The poem features numerous references to their time together at Trinity College, "the reverend walls in which of old I wore the gown".
In Doctor Thorne (1858 novel) by Anthony Trollope, Frank Gresham, heir to the near-bankrupt Gresham estate, is a Cambridge student. Despite his family's objections, he is determined to return to the University and study for a degree.
In A Tale of Two Cities (1859 novel) by Charles Dickens, Charles Darnay tutors Cambridge undergraduates in French language and literature.
In Middlemarch (1872 novel) by George Eliot, Mr Brooke, the heroine's uncle and guardian, is a Cambridge graduate. He claims to have been a student at the same time as Wordsworth.
In All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1882 Novel) by Sir Walter Besant, Cambridge is an important setting.
She: A History of Adventure (1886 novel) by H. Rider Haggard is the story of Horace Holly, a Cambridge professor, on a journey amongst the indigenous tribes of Africa.
In the Sherlock Holmes series (1887–1927 collection of novels and short stories) by Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes reveals that he first developed his methods of deduction while an undergraduate. The author Dorothy L. Sayers suggests that, given details in two of the Adventures, Holmes must have been at Cambridge rather than Oxford and that "of all the Cambridge colleges, Sidney Sussex [College] perhaps offered the greatest number of advantages to a man in Holmes’ position and, in default of more exact information, we may tentatively place him there.
In Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891 novel) by Thomas Hardy, Angel Clare rebels against his family's plans to have him sent to Cambridge and ordained as a minister of the Church of England. His older brothers are both Cambridge graduates and Cuthbert is the dean of a Cambridge college.
In Utopia, Limited (1892 opera) by Gilbert and Sullivan, the entrance of the character Princess Zara, who is returning from her studies at Girton College, is heralded by a song called "Oh, maiden rich in Girton lore".
In The Turn of the Screw (1898 novella) by Henry James, the story's narrator, Douglas, describes first meeting the protagonist after coming down from Trinity College for the second summer of his university career.
The Longest Journey (1907 novel) by E. M. Forster begins at Cambridge University.
In the Psmith series (1908–1923 collection of novels) by P. G. Wodehouse, both the title character and Mike, his closest friend, study at Cambridge University.
In Women in Love (1920 novel) by D. H. Lawrence, the character Joshua is introduced at the dinner table as a Cambridge don. Over the course of the meal he explains, in accordance with the idiosyncratic stereotype, how "education is like gymnastics".
In Jacob's Room (1922 novel) by Virginia Woolf, the protagonist Jacob Flanders attends Cambridge.
In The Inimitable Jeeves (1923 Novel) by P. G. Wodehouse, protagonist Bertie Wooster accidentally gets engaged to a graduate of Girton College.
In A Passage to India (1924 novel) by E. M. Forster, the Indian Hamidullah refers to his time at Cambridge to support his argument that it is easier to be befriend Englishmen in England than in India.
In The Case of the Missing Will (1924 Short Story) by Agatha Christie, the detective Hercule Poirot receives an unusual request for help from a Miss Violet Marsh, a graduate of Girton College.
In The Good Companions (1929 Novel) by J. B. Priestley, the character Inigo Jollifant is introduced as a Cambridge graduate.
In The Waves (1931 novel) by Virginia Woolf, the characters Bernard and Neville are both graduates of Cambridge University.
Darkness at Pemberley (1932 novel) by T. H. White features St Bernard's College, a fictionalised version of Queens' College.
Glory (1932 novel) by Vladimir Nabokov is the story of an émigré student who escapes from Russia and is educated at Cambridge before returning to his native country.
In Sweet Danger (1933 novel) by Margery Allingham, a mini-biography reveals the famous sleuth Albert Campion to be a graduate of the fictional St Ignatius' College, Cambridge.
In The Citadel (1937 Novel) by A. J. Cronin, the protagonist's initial rival and close friend, Philip Denny, is a Cambridge graduate. Dr Hope, another of the protagonist's main associates, spends much of his time at Cambridge where he is completing a medical degree.
Out of the Silent Planet (1938 novel) by C. S. Lewis begins at Cambridge University, where Elwin Ransom, the protagonist of The Space Trilogy, is Professor of Philology. The trilogy also features the University of Edgestow, a fictional institution which is essentially a third Oxbridge.
In The Facts of Life (1939 Short Story) by W. Somerset Maugham, the main character Nicky attends Peterhouse due to its reputation in Lawn Tennis.
The Caterpillar and the Men from Cambridge (1943 poem) by Weldon Kees, is a satirical response to the teachings of Cambridge literary critics I. A. Richards and C. K. Ogden.
The Hills of Varna (1948 novel) by Geoffrey Trease begins with main character Alan Drayton being sent down from his Cambridge college after it emerges that he was involved in a tavern brawl. His Cambridge tutor, Erasmus, sends him to the continent to try to retrieve a manuscript of The Gadfly, a lost play by the ancient Greek writer Alexis from the time of Socrates.
The Masters (1951 novel) and The Affair (1960 Novel) by C. P. Snow, both feature an unnamed fictional college, partly based on the author's own, Christ's.
In To Sir, With Love (1959 novel) by E. R. Braithwaite, the protagonist is a Cambridge graduate.
In You Only Live Twice (1964 novel) by Ian Fleming, the famous spy James Bond is revealed to have graduated from Cambridge University with a First in Oriental Languages; in the film adaptation of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Bond is again identified as a Cambridge graduate.
The Millstone (1965 Novel) by Margaret Drabble is the story of a young female Cambridge academic who becomes pregnant and is forced into a completely alien life style.
On Bed-Sitter Images (1967 album), Al Stewart's debut release, the final track, Beleeka Doodle Day, opens with the line "I could have gone to Cambridge with Lionel" and goes on to express a number of the singer's other regrets.
The House on the Strand (1969 novel) by Daphne du Maurier is the story of two Cambridge graduates who have created a drug that enables time travel. They frequently refer to their college days.
In many novels and plays by Thomas Bernhard (written between 1970 and 2006), Cambridge (Geistesnest) is the refuge of a Geistesmensch escaping from Austria.
Maurice (1971 novel) by E. M. Forster is about the homosexual relationship of two Cambridge undergraduates.
Cabaret (1972 film) by Bob Fosse is based on the works of Christopher Isherwood who attended Corpus Christi College. As a result, the university is referenced in the movie.
Porterhouse Blue (1974 novel) and its sequel Grantchester Grind (1995 Novel) by Tom Sharpe both feature Porterhouse, a fictional Cambridge college.
The Glittering Prizes (1976 TV drama) and Oxbridge Blues (1984 TV Drama) by Frederic Raphael both feature Cambridge University.
In Professional Foul (1977 Play) by Tom Stoppard, the main character, Anderson, is Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge University.
Timescape (1980 novel) by Gregory Benford is the story of a group of scientists at the University of Cambridge and their attempts to warn the past about a series of global disasters that have left the world in a state of disarray. Benford's short story, Anomalies, is also set at Cambridge, where the main character, an amateur astronomer from Ely, meets the Master of Jesus College.
The unaired Doctor Who episode "Shada" (1980) shows the Fourth Doctor and his companion Romana in the fictional St. Cedd's College, which was filmed in Front Court, Emmanuel College. Footage of the pair punting by the backs from this episode was re-used in the twentieth anniversary episode, The Five Doctors (1983).
Chariots of Fire (1981 film) by Hugh Hudson is partly set at Cambridge between 1919 and 1924, when key characters Harold Abrahams (played by Ben Cross) and Aubrey Montague (Nicholas Farrell) were students there.
On the Beach at Cambridge (1984 poem) by Adrian Mitchell is written from the point of view of someone sitting on a beach and looking out to sea, where the remnants of Cambridge University, as represented by the trademark spires and towers of the colleges, may just about be seen above the water. The poem was written to draw attention to the dangers of climate change and rising sea levels.
In Bambi (1984), the first episode of the second series of The Young Ones, written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, the four main characters represent Scumbag College on University Challenge. The opposing team is Footlights College, Oxbridge, which consisted of Lord Monty (Hugh Laurie); Lord Snot (Stephen Fry, who had himself appeared on University Challenge while a student at Cambridge); Miss Money-Sterling (Emma Thompson); and Kendal Mintcake (Ben Elton). Three of the four Oxbridge contestants were played by actual Cambridge graduates who had been Footlights members during their time at the University.
Floating Down to Camelot (1985 novel) by David Benedictus is set entirely at Cambridge University and was inspired by the author's time at Churchill College.
Still Life (1985 novel) by A. S. Byatt features Cambridge University.
In Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987 Novel) by Douglas Adams, much of the action takes place at the fictional St. Cedd's College, Cambridge.
The Matthew Bartholomew Chronicles (1990s Novels) by Susanna Gregory, is a series of murder mysteries set in and around the university in medieval Cambridge.
Avenging Angel (1990 novel) by Kwame Anthony Appiah is largely set at the University.
Civilization (1991 Video Game) by Sid Meier features 'Isaac Newton's College' as a Wonder of the World. This could be a reference to Cambridge University as a whole or to Trinity College specifically. However, the video accompanying the wonder in Civilization II (1996) erroneously shows the University of Oxford.
Peter's Friends (1992 film), written by Rita Rudner and her husband Martin Bergman, and directed and produced by Kenneth Branagh, tells the story of a group of friends who used to be members of Cambridge University's comedy group Footlights.
For the Sake of Elena (1992 Novel) by Elizabeth George features a fictional Cambridge college called St Stephen's.
In Fever Pitch (1992 sports biography), Nick Hornby refers to his time at Jesus College, Cambridge.
In Stephen Fry's novels The Liar (1993) and Making History (1997), the main characters attend Cambridge University.
In A Philosophical Investigation (1992 Novel) by Philip Kerr, the government call on Cambridge's Professor of Philosophy to talk 'Wittgenstein', a murderous virtual being, into committing suicide.
In A Suitable Boy (1993 novel) by Vikram Seth, one of Lata's would-be suitors, a fellow college student, dreams of attending Cambridge University.
Jill Paton Walsh is the author of four detective stories featuring Imogen Quy, the nurse at St. Agatha's, a fictional Cambridge college: The Wyndham Case (1993), A Piece of Justice (1995), Debts of Dishonour (2006) and The Bad Quarto (2007).
All Good Things... (1994), the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, features the android character Data as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in his Cambridge college rooms. An establishing location shot shows a futuristic version of the Cambridge University skyline around the year 2395.
In Bridget Jones's Diary (1996 novel) by Helen Fielding, Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy, who compete for Bridget's affection, are revealed to have been best friends at Cambridge.
Eskimo Day (1996 TV Drama), written by Jack Rosenthal, and starring Maureen Lipman, Tom Wilkinson, and Alec Guinness, is about the relationship between parents and teenagers during an admissions interview day at Queens’ College. There was also a sequel, Cold Enough for Snow (1997).
In The West Wing (1999–2006 TV series) by Aaron Sorkin, the character Will Bailey (played by Joshua Malina) claims to have attended Cambridge University on a Marshall Scholarship. He also claims he was "President of the Cambridge Union Society".
Sacha Baron Cohen's character Borat explores Cambridge University in his Guide to Britain (2000 TV series).
In When We Were Orphans (2000 novel) by Kazuo Ishiguro, the protagonist, Detective Christopher Banks, begins his narrative immediately after graduating from Cambridge.
In Atonement (2001 Novel) by Ian McEwan, the characters Cecilia and Robbie arrive home from Cambridge at the start of the novel.
Wittgenstein's Poker (2001 novel) by David Edmonds recounts the celebrated confrontation between Sir Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein at Cambridge University's Moral Sciences Club.
In The Da Vinci Code (2003 novel) by Dan Brown, the antagonistic Sir Leigh Teabing is a proud Cambridge graduate.
Cambridge Spies (2003 TV Drama) is about the famous Cambridge Five double agents who started their careers at Cambridge: Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and Anthony Blunt.
The History Boys (2004 play) by Alan Bennett, focuses on students in the north of England preparing for Oxbridge entrance exams as used until the mid-1980s.
High Table, Lower Orders (2005–2006 radio series) by Mark Tavener is set at a fictional Cambridge college.
In Starter for 10 (2006 film), written by David Nicholls, directed by Tom Vaughan, and starring James McAvoy, the main characters represent the University of Bristol in a University Challenge game against Queens' College, Cambridge – the team that beat them the previous year.
In Night at the Museum (2006 film), directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ben Stiller and Robin Williams, the Egyptian pharaoh Ahkmenrah claims to speak perfect English as a result of his time in a display cabinet at Cambridge University.
In Rock 'n Roll (2006 play) by Tom Stoppard, Cambridge University is a key setting.
In That Mitchell and Webb Look (2006–2010 TV series) a recurring sketch features an absurd gameshow known as Numberwang which professes to originate from Cambridge University's "Department of Numbers".
In Lewis (2006–2011 TV series), inspired by the novels of Colin Dexter, the Detective Sergeant James Hathaway is a Cambridge graduate.
A Disappearing Number (2007 play) by Simon McBurney is about a famous collaboration between two very different Cambridge scholars: Srinivasa Ramanujan, a poor, self-taught Brahmin from southern India, and G. H. Hardy, an upper-class Englishman and world-renowned Professor of Mathematics.
The Indian Clerk (2007 novel) by David Leavitt is an account of the career of the self-taught mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, as seen mainly through the eyes of his mentor and collaborator G. H. Hardy, a British mathematics professor at Cambridge University.
Engleby (2007 novel) by Sebastian Faulks is largely set at a fictionalised version of Cambridge University. From the description of the eponymous protagonist's college in the opening chapter, one can tentatively suggest that he attends Emmanuel College, of which Faulks is an alumnus.
On his mixtape, No Ceilings (2009), Rapper Lil Wayne references Cambridge University in the song "Ice Cream Paint Job".
At the start of the film adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010), based on the novel by C. S. Lewis and directed by Michael Apted, an establishing location shot features King's College.
Tags:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)