Tuesday, April 8, 2014

The death of Scottish artist Alan Davie was announced on Sunday. Davie, 93, was known for his colourful abstract paintings.

Davie’s career also saw turns as a jeweler, a jazz musician, a lecturer, and a poet. Born in Grangemouth, near Falkirk, in 1920, he studied painting from 1938 to 40 at Edinburgh College of Art.

His father was a teacher who dabbled in art and his mother’s family was musically inclined. Upon seeing Coleman Hawkins performing in a music shop in Edinburgh, Davie borrowed £600 from his father to buy himself a saxophone. After serving in the Second World War, at which time he wrote much poetry later transcribed by his father, Davie toured with Scottish jazz bands.

Davie’s work was admired by the likes of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and David Hockney. Davie himself collected non-Western art and liked tattoos, graffiti, and ‘outsider art’. His final interview before death, with The Telegraph, gave an insight into how he viewed art: “It’s an urge, an intensity, a kind of sexual need[…] something I do from an inner compulsion, that has to come out.”

He initially avoided painting as a career at all, then spent several years earning money by other means whilst his paintings failed to sell. His exhibitions in the late 1950s, however, were highly successful and launched his career. He was in the habit of choosing titles for his art only after completion.

Despite a strong presence owing to his lengthy red beard and off-beat humour, he was shy; his international fame waned. Recent years have seen a revival of interest with price increases for his early art. London alone is host to three exhibitions this month including at the Tate.

Tate Britain calls Davie “one of the first British artists after the war to develop an expressive form of abstraction” producing “kaleidoscopic canvases[…] that the artist relates to his love of jazz”.

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Sunday, December 2, 2007

American heavy metal performer Ozzy Osbourne, who became famous as the lead vocalist for Black Sabbath and later as a solo act, has raised more than US$800,000 for The Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program, founded by his spouse Sharon Osbourne at the Cedars Sinai Hospital, by auctioning off personal items.

A number of the items that he auctioned off over the two day period have been seen on his reality TV show The Osbournes, which featured home life with Sharon, Ozzy and their two children. Amongst some of the higher-priced items were a carved walnut Victorian-style custom built pool table which raised $11,250, a painting from Edourad Drouot which fetched $10,500, a pair of Ozzy’s famous round glasses which raised $5,250 and a dog bed given to Sharon by Elton John which sold for $2,375.

Some more famous items were also amongst the 500 lots offered. Ozzy’s black satin coat, complete with bat-wing cape, raised $3,300 and a hand-painted floral cup used regularly on The Osbournes made $1,625. A bronze plaque of a demon’s head that was regularly seen in its position adorning the front door of their house had been expected to go for $800 to $1,200instead raised $8,750. A wire model of the Eiffel Tower from on the kitchen table sold for $10,000, while skull-covered trainers Ozzy had worn reached $2,625. Bidders came from as far away as Germany to buy what they could from his mansion in Beverly Hills, California.

However, three cars included in the auction failed to attract bidders and did not sell. They were a 2006 Bentley Continental Flying Spur, estimated at $160,000 to $180,000, a 2005 Cadillac CTS-V sedan estimated at $30,000 to $40,000 and a 1950 Oldsmobile Futuramic 88 Club Coupe previously owned by author Danielle Steel estimated at $40,000 to $50,000. Sharon had earlier said of the cars “We’re not great car people. They really don’t do a lot for us.

Darren Julien, president of Julien’s Auctions, which organised the two-day sale, said “It did very well. It raised some good money for a very worthy cause.”

“For a celebrity garage sale, it was pretty spectacular.,” he went on. He also commented on the fact that there was fierce competition for the many artworks included. “We had Ozzy fans bidding against these sophisticated fine art buyers, which you don’t see every day. For the most part the metalheads were outbidding the art crowd.”

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Ferrari driver Felipe Massa won the second session and the pole position for the Sunday FIA 2008 Formula One SingTel Singapore Grand Prix on the street circuit at Marina Bay, Singapore.

This will be the first nightly Formula One event that utilizes artificial lighting and the 800th Formula One World Championship race overall. The previous GP at Singapore held in 1973 was not part of the Formula One.

First to end the qualifying was Italian Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India), burying his car in the wall.

Nelson Piquet Jr. driving for (Renault) was expected to slip into the second session in the 15th place but was bundled out by David Coulthard or the Red Bull team. Piquet’s teammate Fernando Alonso, who topped the second free practice session, performed better in the first session but unexpectedly stopped, showing no time in the second.

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren–Mercedes) jumped to 10th place during the last laps of the session; He was lucky to join the battle for pole. Still, Massa was able to beat Hamilton, who will start second tomorrow.

Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) won the first session, but showed third time in the third. Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) will be split by Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren) on the starting grid tomorrow.

Previous pole-postion holder and GP winner Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso) will start 7th tomorrow.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Fears of contaminated bone and skin grafts are being felt by unsuspecting patients following the revelation that funeral homes may have been looting corpses.

Janet Evans of Marion Ohio was told by her surgeon, “The bone grafts you got might have been contaminated”. She reacted with shock, “I was flabbergasted because I didn’t even know what he was talking about. I didn’t know I got a bone graft until I got this call. I just thought they put in screws and rods.”

The body of Alistair Cooke, the former host of “Masterpiece Theatre,” was supposedly looted along with more than 1,000 others, according to two law enforcement officials close to the case. The tissue taken was typically skin, bone and tendon, which was then sold for use in procedures such as dental implants and hip replacements. According to authorities, millions of dollars were made by selling the body parts to companies for use in operations done at hospitals and clinics in the United States and Canada.

A New Jersey company, Biomedical Tissue Services, has reportedly been taking body parts from funeral homes across Brooklyn, New York. According to ABC News, they set up rooms like a “surgical suite.” After they took the bones, they replaced them with PVC pipe. This was purportedly done by stealth, without approval of the deceased person or the next of kin. 1,077 bodies were involved, say prosecuters.

Investagators say a former dentist, Michael Mastromarino, is behind the operation. Biomedical was considered one of the “hottest procurement companies in the country,” raking in close to $5 million. Eventually, people became worried: “Can the donors be trusted?” A tissue processing company called LifeCell answered no, and issued a recall on all their tissue.

Cooke’s daughter, Susan Cooke Kittredge, said, “To know his bones were sold was one thing, but to see him standing truncated before me is another entirely.” Now thousands of people around the country are receiving letters warning that they should be tested for infectious diseases like HIV or hepatitis. On February 23, the Brooklyn District Attorney indicted Mastromarino and three others. They are charged with 122 felony counts, including forgery and bodysnatching.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Seattle Sounders FC 2 (S2) association football club have maintained a streak with their third home win at Starfire Stadium in Tukwila, Washington last night, this time against Portland Timbers 2 (T2).

T2 struck first when defender Harrison Delbridge headed the ball in from a free kick in the 30th minute. Seattle responded with Pablo Rossi converting a penalty kick in the 47th minute and Giuliano Frano tapping a lobbed pass into the net in the 88th minute. Final score, 2–1 Seattle.

In the 30th minute, T2 midfielder Blair Gavin placed the ball nicely for Delbridge who connected cleanly with the ball to head it past S2 goalkeeper Charlie Lyon. At half, the game still stood with Portland in the lead 1–0. In the first minutes of the second half, S2 Andy Craven was pulled down in the penalty box by T2 Andy Thoma. Rossi was able to convert the penalty with a strong strike to the top left corner. T2 keeper Jake Gleeson was unable to stop the shot. Frano’s goal came in the 88th minute as he was able to chip the ball into the net after nice build up play by the Sounders. The Timbers did look dangerous on corners having earned 8 to Seattle’s 3.

The Timbers suffered their first loss of their season while the Sounders experienced their first ever comeback victory. This was also the first match between the two Cascadia rivals. T2 now stand at 7 points with a record of 2–1–1. S2 and Arizona United SC are now the only Western Conference teams still undefeated. Portland next faces defending champions Sacramento Republic FC away on Saturday, April 18 while Seattle hits the road to battle Tulsa Roughnecks FC on Thursday, April 16.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Companies in the United States are shedding more jobs, pushing the country’s unemployment rate to a 26-year high of 9.8%.

The US Labor Department said on Friday that employers cut 263,000 jobs in September, with companies in the service industries — including banks, restaurants and retailers — hit especially hard. This is the 21st consecutive month of job losses in the country.

The United States has now lost 7.2 million jobs since the recession officially began in December 2007. The new data has sparked fears that unemployment could threaten an economic recovery. Top US officials have warned that any recovery would be slow and uneven, and some have predicted the unemployment rate will top 10% before the situation improves.

“Continued household deleveraging and rising unemployment may weigh more on consumption than forecast, and accelerating corporate and commercial property defaults could slow the improvement in financial conditions,” read a report by the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook, predicting that unemployment will average 10.1% by next year and not go back down to five percent until 2014.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, said that “it’s a very fragile and tentative recovery. Policy makers need to do more.”

“The number came in weaker than expected. We saw a lot of artificial involvement by the government to prop up the markets, and now that that is starting to end, the private sector isn’t yet showing signs of life,” said Kevin Caron, a market strategist for Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.

Also on Thursday, the US Commerce Department said factory orders fell for the first time in five months, dropping eight-tenths of a percent in August. Orders for durable goods — items intended to last several years (including everything from appliances to airliners) — fell 2.6%, the largest drop since January of this year.

The US government has been spending billions of dollars — part of a $787 billion stimulus package — to help spark economic growth. There have been some signs the economy is improving.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday that spending on home construction jumped in August for its biggest increase in 16 years. A real estate trade group, the National Association of Realtors, said pending sales of previously owned homes rose more than 12 percent in August, compared to August 2008.

A separate Commerce Department report said that consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of US economic activity, rose at its fastest pace in nearly eight years, jumping 1.3 percent in August.

Other reports have provided cause for concern. A banking industry trade group said Thursday the number of US consumers making late payments, or failing to make payments, on loans and credit cards is on the rise. A survey by a business group, the Institute for Supply Management, Thursday showed US manufacturing grew in September, but at a slower pace than in August when manufacturing increased for the first time in a year and a half.

Stock markets reacted negatively to the reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 41 points in early trading, reaching a level of 9467. This follows a drop of 203 points on Thursday, its largest loss in a single day since July. The London FTSE index fell 55 points, or 1.1%, to reach 4993 points by 15.00 local time.

Friday, January 30, 2009

A court in London has sentenced a would-be suicide bomber to life imprisonment.

Nicky Reilly, 22, a Muslim convert with learning difficulties and Asperger syndrome, took the components for three bombs — glass bottles containing nails, caustic soda and kerosene — to the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter, south west England, in May 2008. One bottle exploded as Reilly attempted to assemble the device in the restaurant’s toilets, causing him facial and hand injuries. He was arrested outside the establishment.

Reilly entered a plea of guilty to attempted murder and engaging in preparation for terrorism when he appeared in court last year. The judge at the Central Criminal Court in London (known as the Old Bailey), Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, told him he would serve a minimum of 18 years, saying that it was “sheer luck or chance that [it] did not succeed in its objectives” and that “[t]he offence of attempted murder is aggravated by the fact that it was long-planned, that it had multiple intended victims and was intended to terrorise the population of this country”.

Reilly, also known as Mohammad Rashid Saeed Alim, was recruited via an online forum. He is believed to have a mental age of 10 and Devon and Cornwall Police said he had been “preyed on, radicalised and taken advantage of” by the members of the forum.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

A $2,500 reward has been issued by the Humane Society of the United States for information on an “implied terroristic threat”, according to Sergeant Jim Gray of the St. Paul Police Department.

According to Crystal Brown, 17 year old owner of the dog, a gift-wrapped box with a note saying “Congratulations Crystal. This side up. Batteries included.”, was left on her doorstep along with the severed head of her dog, Chevy, and a Valentine’s Day candy.

The dog, an Australian shepherd mix called Chevy, went missing in February and Crystal, his owner, spent weeks searching for him, posting fliers, going door to door, and visiting the local animal shelter.

Dale Bartlett, Deputy Manager for the Humane Society said that “This case was extremely heinous. I deal with hundreds and hundreds of cruelty cases each year. When I read about this case, it just took my breath away.”

“This was so cruel,” Crystal said. “We’re dealing with one sick, twisted person.”

• AP. Girl finds missing dog’s head in box on doorstep <broken link> [archived version] — CNN, March 15, 2007
• AP. “Girl horrified to find her dog’s head in box” — The Sydney Morning Herald,

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Stardust, a NASA space probe, returned with more than scientists bargained for.

“I didn’t see anything,” said University of Washington astronomer, Don Brownlee, from NASA’s Johnson Space Center Tuesday.

But then, technicians flipped over the collection grid and scientists all around let out a huge gasp of excitement.

“It’s better than we could have possibly hoped for,” Brownlee said. “It exceeds all expectations. We have a huge number of impacts, and some are quite big and visible to the naked eye. It’s a huge success.”

In a memo from NASA, scientists said “hundreds of particles” could be seen in the collection tray. “There were two particularly large comet particles that had ‘exploded’ inside,” said the memo.

A lot of the largest particles shattered into little bits of black debris when they landed on the collecter. But many other visible particles left tracks as they landed at 13,000 MPH and stopped fully intact. “I remember warning people not to be disappointed if these tracks were very hard to see, but they are absolutely stunning,” Brownlee said.

Before they opened the collector, Brownlee admitted that no one really knew whether or not the device had actually caught any particles. “You just don’t know if nature is going to cooperate or not. It has been a magic mission.”

“The capsule tumbled several times when it landed by parachute in the Utah desert, but the impact didn’t crack the aerogel,” said Brownlee.

NASA researcher Scott Sandford said the collection effort “succeeded well beyond our wildest hopes. I am not sure if it is good clean-room protocol to hug each other, but there was a lot of it going on for the first 10 minutes or so,” he added.

Stardust traveled nearly 3 billion miles and went around the Sun 3 times. Stardust’s mission in space lasted 7 years.

Scientists also hope to use Distributed Computing to help with looking over the samples. They will use a VM (Virtual Microscope) which will be developed by the University of California at Berkeley. The developers, computer scientist David Anderson, director of the SETI@home project and physics graduate student, Joshua Von Korff, are expected to design the program which is expected to go public in March.