drawsome

Boys will be boys...

2013-08-19T15:52:00.000-07:00

I`ve decided to create a cartoon strip, and these three, are the the first of many!

Luis Suarez....Still at Liverpool next season?

2013-04-22T17:01:00.002-07:00

Come on Luis...you can`t carry on like this mate. A shame really, you`re an excellent footballer, but
you`ll have to start showing some self control. This is Liverpool Football Club your at now you know!

Even Downing Street are getting involved now!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/apr/22/luis-suarez-charged-biting-ivanovic

Get a HI-RES Copy of this image at :

http://www.photobox.co.uk/my/photo?album_id=1038888171&photo_id=3799419651

A new league and another new dawn for US women's soccer

2013-01-25T03:42:00.000-08:00

The National Women's Soccer League will be the third professional league for women in the US this century. Will it fare better than its predecessors?

Here we go again: The United States Soccer Federation has announced that a new league known as the National Women's Soccer League will launch in 2013 administered by US Soccer.

The league will begin with eight clubs, the four left over from the recently-extinguished Women's Professional Soccer league (Boston, Chicago, New Jersey, Buffalo) and four new clubs. The names range from overly regional minor league names (Western New York Flash) to cheeky (Portland Thorns FC) to names that have survived all three women's leagues (Boston Breakers). Those clubs will join the Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City, Sky Blue FC, Washington Spirit, and the as-yet-unnamed Seattle club.

US Soccer will also subsidize the salaries of up to 24 US women's national team players while the Canadian Soccer Association and Federation of Mexican Football will each do the same for up to 16 players.
Since the US women began their tour celebrating their gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, the question has lingered: Where will these women play when this is all over? From the moment when the WPS had to suspend its operations, the US national team players have been bullish on the ability of a league to come back. But at the beginning of the post-Olympic tour, when asked where they would be playing next season, the overwhelming response from the players was "I don't know".

For Abby Wambach and Hope Solo, who are past the soccer magic age line of 30, certainly there's been a good deal of soul searching over the last year. Emerging stars like Alex Morgan suddenly had a wrench thrown in their future.

That the North American soccer federations are now willing to subsidize the salaries of its players goes to show just how serious the organisation is about giving their national team stars a home. Canada is slated to host the Women's world cup in 2015, and the thrilling match between Canada and the US during the 2012 London Olympics is still fresh in everyone's mind. The goal now is to carry that excitement over the next three years.

This is the third such attempt in the United States to have a top-level women's soccer league. The Women's United soccer league after the 1999 Women's World Cup was the first attempt at a fully professional league. Attendance and TV ratings didn't meet expectations, and the league burnt through a $40 million nest egg in one year (it was supposed to last five). The WUSA folded before the next Women's World Cup. By the time its successor WPS got up and running all of the first generation stars had retired, even though revival efforts began as soon as the WUSA folded.

The Sports Business journal wrote in 2009 that the WUSA had relied on brand bomb advertising, while the WPS was going to use grassroots promotion. Coming off the heels of the quite successful Women's World Cup in the US, with its picturesque final, it was assumed that getting the word out loudly would attract that same audience. The blast didn't pay off and proved too costly.

The WPS' grassroots effort wasn't a grand success either. The league played in smaller stadiums (5k capacity instead of 10k) and instead of traditional American team names like the Washington Freedom of WUSA there were more European style names (FC Gold Pride) and sponsor-named teams (magicJack).

Having a match of the week on the Fox Soccer channel was supposed to help get the word out about the quality of the league. One hit wonder LA Sol folded despite a championship appearance, the best women's player in the world, and AEG footing part of the bill. Simply having a good product doesn't always mean success in the sports business world.

Elsewhere in the world, for example in England, the women's game is semi-pro and often affiliated with a men's club. Same story with the women's basketball league in America, and yet MLS has not been involved in anything relative to women's soccer.

The downside of a semi-pro league is the necessity for a secondary source of income. Rachel Yankey, who plays for Arsenal Ladies Football Club and was on Team GB at the London Olympics, has worked as a coach in schools. Her teammate Kelly Smith came over and played in the American leagues attaining professional status..........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/dec/18/us-women-soccer-national-league-launch?INTCMP=SRCH

Hip-hop: it's a woman's world too

2013-01-24T04:13:00.002-08:00

If you don't know the female MCs are at, you just aren't looking.

Mainstream hip-hop music has tended to be male dominated, with some notable exceptions. Despite what we might see on the surface, the hip-hop community is in fact filled with amazing female artists from all over. If you are asking "where are all the female MCs at?", then you just aren't looking.

World Hip Hop Women: From The Sound Up is the latest mixtape project from Nomadic Wax and World Hip Hop Market. The new mixtape, which is available for free download, seeks to highlight the female voices and causes that are always present but less often heard. It is the brainchild of Detroit's DJ LaJedi and World Hip Hop Market founder Greg Schick, and features artists from 15 countries – joining Iranian MCs living in Washington DC to Zimbabwean artists in the "Sunshine City", Harare. It celebrates both Cuban heritage and the Palestinian struggle, alongside exclusive Spanish dancehall, and new dubstep sounds of South Africa. World Hip Hop Women are fierce emcees spittin' bars that transcend language barriers, cultural differences, and gender bias, expertly mixed together by DJ LaJedi.

"I salute every artist who contributed to the mixtape," said LaJedi, "for their courage and commitment to the spirit of creativity. Many of these women are carving paths where there are none. They embody 'firsts' of all kinds: MC Black Bird – first female to release a hip-hop record in Zimbabwe; Soultana – member of Tigress Flow, first all-female hip-hop crew in Morocco; Masia One – first female to be nominated for Canada's Much Music Award; Shadia Mansour – the first lady of Arab hip-hop; MC Melodee – Holland's leading lady in hip-hop; DJ Naida – Zimbabwe's #1 female DJ, and on and on. They are assuming leadership roles in their native communities and beyond through endeavours that prove their conscious attitudes regarding love, truth, peace, freedom of expression and social justice."..........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/jan/24/hip-hop-woman-world?INTCMP=SRCH

Liverpool dismissal of Norwich shows Brendan Rodgers is making ground

2013-01-20T16:13:00.000-08:00

Andy Hunter at Anfield
The Guardian, Sunday 20 January 2013 23.01 GMT
Gauging Liverpool's progress under Brendan Rodgers is an inexact science but there was substance to their haul against Norwich City. It took until the final home game of last season, against a Chelsea team seemingly immersed in FA Cup celebrations, for Liverpool to record six league wins at Anfield. They reached the half-dozen on Saturday with an authority that reinforced their erratic nature under Kenny Dalglish's successor.

There are, however, signs that Rodgers is getting it right and their captain, Steven Gerrard, thinks so. "He's certainly got the backing of the owners," he told Goals on Sunday on Sky Sports. "I think the appointment, giving him the job after Kenny, was a sign that he's going to be here for a while. I think he'll be given time to put his philosophy out there.
"It's not going to happen overnight, it is going to take time and we've been a little bit inconsistent this season. But I think the majority of the games we've shown to the supporters and to the neutrals out there that we're playing the right way. Given time, and a little bit more backing – maybe a few more players – I think it will work really well under him. I'm really happy with his appointment and how it's going so far."

Aston Villa apart, Liverpool have often contemptuously dismissed teams in the bottom half of the Premier League this term and once Jordan Henderson awoke a frozen Anfield with an opening goal as impressive as his overall performance Norwich were to be no exception. Victory over a team in the top 10 remains elusive for Liverpool but before trips to Arsenal and Manchester City the morale-sapping defeat at Manchester United was erased in emphatic style.
Henderson began the rout with an unstoppable finish past Mark Bunn. Norwich's tormentor-in-chief, Luis Suárez.........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jan/20/liverpool-norwich-brendan-rodgers

2012: how did it taste to you?

2013-01-15T16:13:00.000-08:00

For me, this was the year of pimped dirty food, as burgers, chicken wings and hot dogs all went gourmet.

- Jay Rayner
- The Observer, Saturday 8 December 2012 21.00 GMT.
- As it stutters to its end, let me ask: how did 2012 taste for you? Twenty years from now what flavour would catapult you back to the year we hosted the Olympics, Jimmy Savile turned out to be exactly the sort of man so many of us thought he was and a Tory MP nobody liked resigned her party whip by going into the jungle? For me it is a mixture of tomato puree, brown sugar and a hit of vinegar and chilli. Or barbecue sauce, as it's known. For 2012 was the year of pimped dirty food, when a deepening recession sent skilled cooks heading towards the gutter, the better to look up at the stars.
- There were long smoked ribs and vajazzled hot dogs and chicken wings smeared with the salty hit of Korean chilli sauce. There were pulled pork buns, and slabs of pork belly, long braised, quick seared, and wrapped up with more Korean hot sauce and the crunch of spring onions. There was butter milk fried chicken. There was an epidemic of filthy burgers in glazed brioche buns. In 2012, if eating it didn't require you to mop your wrists with 14 tissues afterwards it wasn't real food. Come 2032, if you give me a hockey puck of minced prime Aberdeen Angus, pink at its heart, a crisp rasher of dry cured streaky, and a slice of west country cheddar with such a tang it's almost on the turn, I'll be right back there. Which is to say, right back here.
  
  Not everybody can use flavour as an access point for memory. The crown prince of all this is supposed to be Marcel Proust, who apparently conjures up an entire universe from one Madeleine and a cup of weak tea. It's a nice literary device, but I've never completely believed it. You have to be constantly hungry to use food as a route back to experience, not the sort of person known for coughing plaintively into a handkerchief then checking it for spotting.....
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/dec/08/2012-year-in-food

Arts Council chief accuses Gove of abandoning cultural education

2013-01-15T03:56:00.000-08:00

Education secretary risks leaving a generation exposed and robbing children of their birthright, warns Liz Forgan.

Charlotte Higgins, chief arts writer
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 January 2013

Education secretary risks leaving a generation exposed and robbing children of their birthright, warns Liz Forgan

The Arts Council chief, Liz Forgan, says she is alarmed at the absence of arts subjects from the new Ebacc qualification.

Michael Gove is abandoning the next generation's cultural education, leaving them "dangerously exposed" without the basic artistic understanding to recognise themselves and their culture, according to the head of the Arts Council.

In a lecture on Tuesday at the British Museum to mark the end of her tenure as chair of the arts-funding body, Liz Forgan will say the education secretary risks "robbing a generation of its birthright and failing in the duty we all have to continue our culture".

She will say: "Just as we let a whole generation lose the capacity to cook so we are in danger of making the same break in the transmission of our cultural language."

In her speech, titled A Farewell to Arts, Forgan will express alarm at the absence of arts subjects from the Ebacc, the new qualification at 16 awarded to pupils who have gained GCSE grades A-C in five subject areas: maths, English, two sciences, languages and the humanities. By excluding subjects such as art, design, music, dance and drama from the Ebacc, she argues, "a big red signal is hoisted saying with total clarity, 'We don't care'".

She will note that 15% of schools have dropped one or more arts subjects since the Ebacc was introduced.
The lack of arts subjects on the Ebacc has........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2013/jan/15/arts-council-chief-gove-education

David Cameron is irresponsible to omit climate change from his G8 priorities

2013-01-12T16:39:00.000-08:00

The prime minister must use the leadership of the G8 as an opportunity to demonstrate that the UK can be taken seriously as a responsible player on the global stage.

It's one of greatest threats to global stability, yet climate change is nowhere to be found in the UK's G8 priorities.

The World Economic Forum published its Global Risks report this week, outlining what its analysis suggests are the biggest risks facing global economic stability in 2013.

At the top of the list is inaction on climate change, alongside disparities in income and the failure of governments to reduce their debts.

As the report points out, the fact that the top three risks are exactly the same as in 2012 reflects the tragic failure of policymakers across the globe to make progress on the major economic, environmental and social challenges of our time.

It also recognises that as long as the economy alone dominates the political agenda, the risk of irreversible ecological devastation grows ever greater – which in turn, poses a huge threat to economic stability.
The UK has an invaluable opportunity to show that it understands the nature of these risks as it takes over the presidency of the G8 group of nations.

While there are very real concerns that the G8 itself suffers from a lack of legitimacy, it is nonetheless the case that, over the next 12 months, we have an opportunity to play a key role in shaping multilateral action between the most powerful economies.

For David Cameron, this is a rare chance to rise above the petty squabbles of domestic politics and demonstrate that Britain is fit to provide leadership on the big global issues.

Yet when the prime minister set out his priorities for the UK's G8 presidency on the first day of the new year, climate change was not among them.

There was not a single mention of the rising temperatures and the extreme weather events that are already destabilising populations worldwide, fuelling conflict and increasing food prices and poverty.

Instead, as Cameron announced in a letter to the G8 leaders, the UK will focus on three key areas: tax, trade and transparency. In other words, open economies, open governments and open societies.

A fairer tax system and transparent governance are certainly worthy priorities. Indeed, both are absolutely crucial if nations are to deliver equality, prosperity and legitimacy for their people.

"Open economies" sounds rather more disturbing; the prime minister's desire to "unleash the power of the private sector" ringing alarm bells about this government's wrong-headed approach to aid and trade with developing countries.

But after a year that will be remembered for the devastation wreaked by hurricane Sandy, flooding in China and, of course, here at home, and raging wildfires in Australia, it's simply baffling – and irresponsible in the extreme – for the leader of the world's sixth-biggest economy to fail to assert his commitment to leading on climate change.

Despite confusing headlines this week............
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/jan/11/david-cameron-climate-change-g8?intcmp=122

A festival of comics and graphic books inspires new artists and writers in Newcastle

2013-01-11T17:25:00.002-08:00

John Hill celebrates the Canny Comic Convention in the home of the graphic book reading circle, Readers of the Lost Art

Our story begins with a young lad called Josh.
Josh happened upon the first Canny Comic Con in Newcastle last year. He took part in a workshop on how to put together comics. He went away inspired.

And then, most importantly, he kept going.

When the second event rolled around last weekend, he returned with sketches to show everyone.
"It's pretty much exactly what you'd hope for when you're putting together an event", says co-organiser Stacey Whittle.

The Canny Comic Con is a free event nestled in Newcastle City Library. It brings together all sorts of creators, from emerging local talent to professionals such as 2000AD's Al Ewing and Alice in Sunderland creator Bryan Talbot.

Josh's story is an example of why events such as this are important, and why it's sad that some people still sneer at comics. Maybe it's a rite of passage for all mediums. After all..............
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/dec/14/art-comics?INTCMP=SRCH

Stephen Lovegrove appointed new permanent secretary at Decc

2013-01-11T02:45:00.000-08:00

Go Green

Boss of the Shareholder Executive confirmed as new head of Department of Energy and Climate Change.

The long-running saga over the appointment of a new Permanent Secretary at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has come to an end with confirmation that Stephen Lovegrove has been selected to take up the role.

Lovegrove is currently chief executive of the Shareholder Executive, the body overseen by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) that manages government investments, government-owned companies, the Royal Mail, and the UK's Cyber Security Strategy.

He also sat on the board of The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and is a Trustee of the Charities Aid Foundation.

Lovegrove has been appointed after Prime Minister David Cameron controversially intervened in the appointment process to block the candidacy of the chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), David Kennedy, who had been endorsed by an interview panel of senior civil servants and Lib Dem Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey............
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/07/stephen-lovegrove-permanent-secretary-decc

Academies use covert selection methods to skew intake, report finds

2013-01-10T03:41:00.000-08:00

Holding social events for prospective parents or issuing lengthy admission forms among practices used to manipulate entry, Academies Commission claims.

Peter Walker
The Guardian, Thursday 10 January 2013

Christine Gilbert of the Academies Commission: 'Academisation alone is not going to deliver the improvements we need.' Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian.

Some academy schools have been accused of manipulating admissions to improve results and using covert selection methods, according to a major report into the programme, which also warns that the government's push to boost the number of academies is not leading to a consistent rise in standards.

A number of academy chains are seemingly more focused on expanding their empires than improving their existing schools, the report concludes.

The study, led by Ofsted's former chief inspector Christine Gilbert, also notes an overall lack of transparency and openness, particularly over the way academy sponsors are chosen, and warns that too many school governors are not up to the hugely more significant role they play in academies.

The report comes from the self-styled Academies Commission, which broadly backs the "aspirational vision" of academies and has links to the programme. The commission was set up by the Royal Society of Arts, which sponsors an academy in Tipton, West Midlands, and the textbooks giant Pearson. Among Gilbert's co-authors is Brett Wigdortz, founder of Teach First, the charity that brings high-flying graduates into disadvantaged schools and is hugely popular with Michael Gove, the education secretary..........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/jan/10/academy-schools-covert-selection-skew-intake

Dear Mr Gove new year special: Michael Rosen's letter from a curious parent

2013-01-08T15:26:00.000-08:00

For the start of the year, I'm sending you some helpful ideas, from how to keep student numbers down to keeping teachers in check.

- Michael Rosen
- The Guardian, Monday 7 January 2013 20.00 GMT

I thought I would try to be positive and lay out a set of modest proposals for you to consider in 2013.

1 Universities
It's imperative to keep down the number of students. "Graduate" is really another name for people who think they're entitled to be paid well. We are in an era when we must all pull together to ensure that workers work more and earn less (or as employers call it, "keeping labour costs down") and large numbers of graduates swimming around the economy are an impediment to this. What's more, three years of independent living and discussion have the potential to turn many of these young people into dissenters and trouble-makers. There is an argument for saying that it is the job of government to enable a population to increase its cultural capital, raising the level of education of as many people as possible. You must portray this sentiment as a utopian fantasy of a long-lost past
.
So, let's put into practice a set of clear policies:

a) You and your colleagues (and Eric Pickles) need to put a lot of effort into mocking and rubbishing university courses. Don't worry about consistency here: pick on both vocational courses and seemingly obscure academic ones: "A degree in leisure management, ha ha ha"; 'A degree in medieval German literature, ha ha ha".

b) Suggest at every opportunity that academics and students are spongers and skivers. Contrast their use of public money, long holidays and low hours of work with MPs' honesty, diligence and industriousness.
c) Make a big deal out of things like the "knowledge economy", "what Britain does best", "centres of excellence" and "world-class universities". Rely on journalists to put this inflated waffle (which you don't believe in anyway) on their front pages while relegating the cuts to a one-inch column on page 11.

d) It is absolutely vital to boast about making it possible for the "disadvantaged" to go to university while making it harder for them to do so. Fees of £9,000 a year are already much too low and some students from poorer families are slipping through the net and going to university. We must discourage them from doing so. I suggest fees in the region of £20,000 a year. One scholarship a year per university would serve the purpose of looking as if you're being "fair".

I am so glad that your colleague David Willetts has highlighted the problems of white working-class boys going to university. Given your party's electoral precariousness at the moment, it is vital that you and your colleagues present a narrative which suggests that Britain today is a place where white people can't get on and black people are given incredible advantages.

2 Ebacc
There is a real danger that you're about to be stabbed in the back by your predecessor Kenneth Baker. He has come up with a plan to abolish exams at 16, create higher schools and training places for 14- to 18-year-olds. With utmost urgency, you must dig up anything you can on Baker to suggest that he is either an out-of-touch old backwoodsman fart and/or he is in thrall to Trotskyists.

For you to be able to push through what is fast becoming an exam that will be a major impediment for most young people to develop as learners, you must:

a) ignore all evidence on adolescents and learning;
b) make misleading comparisons with the old O-levels;
c) keep talking about "rigour" without explaining what you mean by that word;
d) rubbish teachers by saying that, unlike MPs, they are lazy and misuse public money.

3 Primary school exams

The phonics screening check and the spelling, punctuation and grammar – Spag – test.
You must resist all demands to provide evidence that these tests will improve reading and writing, as there is none. Avoid public debate about this. Potential problems coming up are:

a) that many more children failed the phonics test than learn how to read using the old mixed methods;
b) many good readers failed the phonics test;
c) some children are being told they have "failed" and so can't proceed to "real" books.

Rely on ill-informed newspaper editors to keep these stories off the front pages. When it comes to the grammar test, I predict that there will be real problems, with teachers not knowing how to teach for it and hardly any children understanding what is being tested. Therefore you must keep up the campaign of rubbishing teachers, showing how, unlike MPs, they are lazy and misuse public money.
In a key speech, make the suggestion that most British children are ignorant, illiterate, stupid and badly behaved.

4 Academies programme
Stop trying to be nice. Step in now, and make every state school in England an academy. Hail this termination of public accountability as a triumph of "freedom from control". Make sure that your own burgeoning powers of control over the nation's teachers and young people is never mentioned. It is crucial that whenever an academy fails an inspection, you must rubbish the teachers, showing how, unlike MPs, they are lazy and misuse public money.

It is highly unlikely that you will be able to keep tabs on all the academies, so I suggest that you create a set of regional committees to manage them. These must not be called "local" in case people compare them to local authorities and the management committees must not be elected, but made up of people appointed by you.

5 Teachers
Abolish all teacher training. In a key speech, try to whip up people's bad memories of individual teachers (who were usually just people trying to implement what governments made them do) by saying how "we all hate teachers". Play to people's feelings that it is always other people's children who are "bad influences" on their own, and what is needed is a "firm hand". This should enable you to usher in the replacement of teachers by ex-military personnel who can do the job of patrolling past the computer terminals (equipped with News Corporation syllabuses), which all children will be looking at all day in the exciting schools of the future.

6 History
You must work even harder on the history curriculum, ensuring that all our children in England are proud of our country's history. I'm not absolutely sure what this means if Scotland becomes independent, but I'm sure you've figured out what "our country" means better than me. Meanwhile, can we make sure that dead white men are celebrated the most? All attempts to show either that some dead white men did bad things, or that there are some important things done by dead white women, dead black men and even dead black women, must be eradicated. We need to have our classrooms filled with pride. After all, thanks to your government, more and more children are arriving at school with empty bellies, so at least let's fill them with pride, eh?

7 Business
All schools must be turned into limited companies. Headteachers should be employers ("school company directors") while compulsorily non-unionised teachers and pupils are the workers. Schools should be required to make goods and sell services for money and become places that offer car-cleaning, photocopying, fruit-picking, biscuit-making and the like at highly competitive rates.

8 Your job
The moment it looks as if staying in your job is an impediment to your long-term objectives of becoming leader of the Conservative party, make it clear to David Cameron that you've never been very interested in education and you have outlived your usefulness.
I hope that these proposals will be of use to you throughout the year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/jan/07/education-proposals-for-michael-gove

Microsoft Silicon Valley offices raided with only iPads stolen

2013-01-08T04:50:00.002-08:00

Apple products were the only items taken when thieves targeted Microsoft's research and development centre in California.

Josh Halliday
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 January 2013 12.35 GMT
Microsoft's reputation as the "less cool" rival to Apple appears to have been reinforced, after thieves raided its Silicon Valley offices – but only stole a collection of iPads.

The thieves made away with five iPads worth more than $3,000 (£1,865) from Microsoft's research and development centre in Mountain View, California, over Christmas.

Microsoft's flagship collection of smartphones and tablet computers remained untouched in the raid, according to Mountain View police who spoke to The Register.

Red-faced Microsoft employees were presumably relieved to find their own company's gadgets had been overlooked when they returned to work after the Christmas holidays – but immediately reported the iPad thefts to police.

News of the raid came to light after a ......
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jan/08/microsoft-offices-raided-ipads-stolen-apple

Dentists warned over x-ray machine amid radiation fears

2013-01-07T16:29:00.000-08:00

Tianjie Dental Falcon x-ray machine exposes patients to 10 times recommended dose of radiation, say health officials.

Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Monday 3 December 2012 17.08 GMT

Tianjie Dental Falcon x-ray scanners pose a significant health risk to patients as well as dentists and nurses, MHRA officials have warned.

Dentists have been warned not to buy a handheld x-ray machine which exposes patients to 10 times the recommended dose of radiation.

The cheap imported devices could also pose a significant risk to dentists and nurses, health officials said.
The Tianjie Dental Falcon scanners can be purchased on eBay for as little as £205, compared with about £4,000 for a safe model.

Officials have confirmed that one UK-based dental practice purchased one of the dangerous machines, and several others have expressed interest in buying one.

Any dental practices that have purchased the machines have been urged to contact the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Bruce Petrie, of the MHRA's medical devices enforcement team, said: "It's vital that dentists and dental staff do not buy these dental x-ray machines from eBay or other websites because they are not approved and not safe for dentists or patients.

"We have seized 13 of these x-ray machines from the distributor and we are working with eBay and other governments to ensure dentists and patients are protected. We urge anyone who has bought one of these machines to contact us."

Barry Cockcroft, chief dental officer for England and the government's principal dental adviser, added: "It is vitally important that when buying equipment dentists make sure it is appropriate and safe for use. I would urge all dental professionals to be cautious of seemingly cheap devices which may not be fit for purpose, and potentially dangerous."

Clinical evaluator Donald Emerton, who examined the seized devices at King's College hospital, added: "When we tested the x-ray machine we found it did not properly protect either a potential patient, nor the person operating it.

"Over time someone operating this machine, such as a dental assistant, would be exposed to unacceptable levels of accumulated radiation and this would have an increased risk to their health. I certainly wouldn't want someone to use this piece of equipment to take an x-ray of me."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/dec/03/dentists-warned-xray-machine-radiation?INTCMP=SRCH

How record labels are learning to make money from YouTube.

2013-01-04T17:07:00.000-08:00

Rather than getting unauthorised versions of videos taken down, labels are monetising them through YouTube's ad partnerships.

Helienne Lindvall
guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 January 2013 18.11 GMT
Shortly before Christmas the Gangnam Style official video broke a YouTube record by clocking up a billion views. How much Psy will pocket for these views depends, of course, on what his record deal stipulates, but the Guardian can now at least reveal what some of the biggest independent labels make.

Recently Martin Mills, founder and chairman of the Beggars Group (home to artists such as Adele, Jack White and The xx), told me that last year 22% of the label group's digital revenues came from streaming – and that the majority of its artists earn more now from track streams than track downloads.

Though it's not required to do so, Beggars Group currently pays artists 50% of streaming revenue, as Mills "thinks it's the right thing to do in this nascent stage of the market". This is not, by any means, an industry standard. Robbie Williams's co-manager Tim Clark says that not many labels pay that much: "I believe some record companies are paying some artists that rate – Universal among them."

Mills says the highest unit revenue for streaming comes from Spotify – a significant multiple of what Beggars makes from YouTube, though the number of streams on the latter is greater.
Anyone who has ever tried to get unauthorised versions and videos of their music off YouTube knows that...........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jan/04/record-labels-making-money-youtube

2013-01-04T03:23:00.000-08:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/jan/03/ones-to-watch-2013-charli-xcx?intcmp=122

Ones to watch in 2013: Charli XCX

"Yep, we could get to like this one"

Meet the singer who piles on the 90s references to create a self-contained world of Day-Glo poptasticness

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Charli XCX's route to success has been slow, at least in the hyper-accelerated world in which she lives. The 20-year-old singer was first noticed in 2008, when she featured on post-dubstep tracks by acts including Alex Metric. Since then, she has released two mixtapes, toured with Coldplay and ridden the spurious Tumblr-wave genre alongside the likes of Kitty Pryde and Grimes.
Charli, though, simply sees herself as a pop singer. "I love pop, that's always what I've wanted to do," she says. "Do pop but with my point of view – to inject some magic." That demand for magic is what underpins her take on pop – be it a collaboration with the likes of LA rapper and stripper Brooke Candy on Cloud Aura or having You're the One remixed by the Internet.
We meet at her flat in west London, a wonderland of 90s pop nostalgia, with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figurines and Spice Girls paraphernalia. She's wearing a sort of Sporty Spice-gone-glam outfit, complete with a crop top, lamé leggings and lashings of eyeliner, and giggles at the idea of being a slave to mainstream fashion.
"I've always been obsessed with the 90s in a really unhealthy way," she says. "I love the Spice Girls and Shampoo and Aqua; the marriage of bubblegum pop and super-grunge really excited me. I came from the warehouse rave scene, where the whole club kid/extreme fashion thing was really interesting. It's always been a part of me."..........

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/jan/03/ones-to-watch-2013-charli-xcx?intcmp=122

What might a world without work look like?

2013-01-03T15:29:00.001-08:00

Nina Power.
The Guardian, Thursday 3 January 2013 21.00 GMT.

As ideas of employment become more obscure and desperate, 2013 is the perfect time to ask what it means to live without it.

A few months before the financial crash hit, the National Lottery issued a new kind of scratchcard. At £5 a go – the more expensive end of the range – it offered the chance to win £40,000 a year, every year, for the rest of your life. Howard Groves, the director of game development, described the idea in the following way: "It's about not having to put up with life's everyday irritants."

The card proved successful, despite its cost, and a new version in 2009 is still selling well. Everything that is carried in the hope of the card – life (how long might I live for?), security (how might I care for myself and others?) and leisure (what might I do with my free time?) – is really code for a life without work. The "everyday irritants" identified by the card-makers pose an important question: is work one of these "irritants"? Perhaps even the largest irritant of all?

As with all major institutional entities – law, prison, education – to question work is to tamper with reality itself. As with law, prison and education, it is almost always "never a good time" to talk about reform, or the abolition of existing structures. The ideological mishmash represented by the word itself is worth examining. Paid employment is an economic necessity for all but a tiny percentage of the population, but "work" is tied up with miasmic qualities that touch on social and even quasi-religious elements: identity, status, community, habit, duty.

The Tories, as ever,..............
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/03/world-without-work

2013-01-03T03:07:00.000-08:00

Report shows how NHS trusts are working to improve staff health.

A study reveals how NHS trusts in England are promoting the wellbeing of employees – from Zumba classes to healthier food.

Jude Williams

Guardian Professional, Wednesday 2 January 2013 10.59 GMT

The Staff Health Improvement Project report, which was released in November, reveals the steps taken by 22 NHS trusts in England to support staff health and wellbeing.

The report, published by the Health and Work Development Unit, a partnership between the Royal College of Physicians and the charity the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, also reveals how they have used the evidence-based workplace guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) to achieve this. Nice has issued guidance on how to reduce smoking and obesity, promote physical activity, support mental wellbeing and improve the management of long-term sickness absence in the workplace.

I became the lead for the project in early 2012. We interviewed a mix of acute and mental health trusts, large and small, urban and rural. My colleague Sarah Jones and I held in-depth interviews with the health and wellbeing (H&WB) board lead and implementer from each of the selected trusts. We captured a wealth of knowledge, experience and practice, all of which was recorded in the report.

Embedding staff H&WB into the values of an organisation was identified as crucial to the success of this work and some trusts had clearly articulated to staff the link to improved quality of patient care and experience. As one acute trust board lead, said: "We're in the healthcare business. If we can't get it right for staff there's not much hope for anybody.".........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/healthcare-network/2013/jan/02/report-nhs-trust-staff-health-wellbeing

2013-01-01T16:35:00.000-08:00

Take up Dancing.....

2012 was the year of cycling. Now we need a revolution... As bike use reaches critical mass we must keep up the momentum, for our health and for the good of the environment. Call it the Richmond Park test. Yesterday morning, amazing to report, it wasn't belting down with rain, and the park was crammed. It was a joyful sight – families, dog-walkers, runners. But what would have amazed a time traveller from a couple of decades ago would have been the thousands and thousands of cyclists. Something has happened.

There are the dolphin-like schools of muscular men and women in matching Lycra, teams from Britain and the continent, moving as one; there are the men of a certain age, still on racing bikes, but swaddled in woollens; there are the kids with their parents; and there are the stately amateurs, sitting up straight on their three-gear Raleighs. But the main thing is the sheer number of them, a constant, gleaming, metallic stream.

Richmond Park is unusual, granted. It's a huge urban park, with hills and views that attract the big cycling clubs as well as many individuals from the rest of London. It now has a 20mph speed limit. But the something that's happened there is hardly unique, and is spreading, and should spread.

And it's simply that cycling has reached a tipping point, a critical mass, that has turned the motorists into a minority, and an increasingly boxed-in, nervous minority at that. On most of Britain's roads, if a couple of cyclists are side by side, causing cars or vans to brake, there will be shouts and hoots and waved fists. Here, drivers simply have to accept that the world has changed. Drivers who lose their temper find it isn't so easy in the park. They can't zoom off. And they are outnumbered by cyclists.

I've written about the cycling revolution before,........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/30/cycling-bikes-wiggins-environment-transport

2012-12-30T14:14:00.000-08:00

Adoption reunions: 'There is no doubt that the road gets bumpy'

The day Sue was due to meet her birth father for the first time could not have been more momentous. "I'd wanted to meet my original family for years. I needed to know who I was but, more than that, I hoped it would fill the massive hole I felt as a result of being placed in an adoptive family who didn't get me at all," says Sue, 40.
They arranged to meet at a railway station and she can still remember the butterflies in her stomach. "It felt a big deal for an 18-year-old girl to travel miles by train to meet someone I didn't know. Every 10 seconds or so, someone would walk past and I'd think, is it you?"

He never showed up. "After an hour and a half, I went to a phone box. His wife answered and she came to walk me back to their house, where he eventually turned up with some excuse about work. We hugged briefly and I remember tears, but mainly because I was so traumatised after he hadn't come. That anger and disappointment shaped our relationship. I was never quite able to get past it."

It's hard to imagine a worse start to an adoption reunion. But even highly charged Oprah-style reunions do not always end happily. Some fizzle out; others end abruptly in rows. Some never really take off at all. There is so much emotion invested, so it's little wonder that those involved are often left feeling bewildered and bruised.

"This is the unexpected side of reconnecting that we don't really hear about," says Julia Feast, of the British Association of Adoption and Fostering...........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/dec/29/adoption-reunions-road-gets-bumpy

2012-08-24T03:12:00.000-07:00

Early welcome to Nuri Sahin......

A simple Welcome to Anfield, Home Of Liverpool F.C.

2012-08-18T03:54:00.000-07:00

Harvey Nichols to open revolutionary new beauty store in Liverpool One

ICONIC store Harvey Nichols today revealed details of its first shop in Liverpool.

The retailer, famous for fashion, beauty and luxury items, will open its doors in the old Habitat unit at Liverpool One.

Beauty Bazaar Harvey Nichols will span three floors and was described as “the one-stop destination for all things beauty”.

Crowds of people are expected to queue for its grand opening in late autumn

The star attraction will be an champagne and cocktail bar, described as an all-day destination in its own right.
Read More
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2012/07/27/harvey-nichols-to-open-revolutionary-new-beauty-store-in-liverpool-one-100252-31483418/#ixzz23tUER3pX

2012-08-18T03:35:00.000-07:00

Yoko Ono celebrates Liverpool’s past, present and future in artwork for the ECHO

LIVERPOOL’S status as a “world in one city” inspired the artwork created specially for today’s ECHO front page by Yoko Ono.

The image, signed “love Yoko” by John Lennon’s 79- year-old widow, features a shaft of light stretching up from the ground into the sky and the message “Imagine Peace” translated in 24 different languages.

It marks the 50th anniversary this weekend of The Beatles playing their first shows as their final line-up – John, Paul, George and Ringo – as well as celebrating the city today.

Yoko said: “The cover represents Liverpool now and in the future.

Read More, and view the artwork here :
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2012/08/17/yoko-ono-celebrates-liverpool-s-past-present-and-future-in-artwork-for-the-echo-100252-31640934/

2012-08-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to bankrupt the club! Liverpool boss Rodgers explains his eye for value....

Brendan Rodgers has insisted he will not bankrupt Liverpool as he warned his pursuit of success will not come at any cost.

Though Rodgers has spent £26million bringing in Fabio Borini and Joe Allen, Liverpool have been streamlining their budget and offloaded a number of high earners, such as Alberto Aquilani.

But Rodgers has also shown he is not afraid to walk away from a deal if he believes the economics are not right, as was the case when he ended his interest in Gylfi Sigurdsson, who joined Tottenham after Liverpool refused to meet his personal terms.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2188362/Brendan-Rodgers-says-bankrupt-Liverpool.html#ixzz23ZTnr0Ze

2012-08-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

Liverpool Football Club sponsors reach agreement...

Standard Chartered agrees settlement with New York regulator

Standard Chartered has agreed a $340m (£217m) settlement with New York regulators that accused it of hiding $250bn of transactions with Iran.

The hearing that had been scheduled for Wednesday has now been adjourned.

The bank's chief executive Peter Sands has been in New York negotiating with the regulators.

The bank had admitted that some of its transactions did break US sanctions, but said that the amount totalled just $14m.

"The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) and Standard Chartered Bank have reached an agreement to settle the matter raised in the DFS order dated August 6, 2012," a statement from the regulator's superintendent said.

"The parties have agreed that the conduct at issue involved transactions of at least $250bn."

READ MORE:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19253666